People from all over the area came together Tuesday to honor Pike County Sheriff Mark Shepherd and his Chief Deputy Steve Rushing, who are retiring from law enforcement at the end of the year.
Officers the men worked with over the years and civilians whose lives were affected because of Shepherd and Rushing’s service exchanged stories, laughter and tears at the reception Tuesday at the Pike County Community Safe Room.
Crimestoppers executive director and banker Sam Sanders recognized the hard work of those in law enforcement.
“It goes without saying, the job law enforcement does is special,” he said. “When I go to work, at the end of the day, I count success as money. I don’t count success as property and lives saved.”
Shepherd’s son J.T., who also works in law enforcement, said everything he knows he learned by watching his father. “He taught me how to hold myself to a higher standard. I could never ask for anybody better to look up to.”
Mike Morris of Kentwood, La., gave an emotional thank you to Shepherd for being there following a tragedy.
“I lost my daughter four years ago in a plane crash outside McComb,” he said. “Mark came to notify the family, and my wife was at our camp in Summit. He stayed with her until I got there.”
Pike County Board of Supervisors president Chuck Lambert commended Rushing and Shepherd, both on a personal and professional level, for their hard work and cooperation with county officials.
“These two men ... have not just been good people to work with, but they’ve been good friends,” he said.
Former McComb police chief Lee Barkdull made the crowd laugh — and Rushing and Shepherd squirm — as he told stories from when he first hired the two as police officers.
When it was Rushing’s time to speak, he remembered when Shepherd first called him and asked if he would be his deputy chief.
“I told him I would like to do that as long as we had a professional department,” he said. “We’ve had that. We meet every morning and talk about problems from the previous day and how to fix them. We’ve always had a friendship. We’ve never had a bad word in all the years we’ve been together.”
Shepherd said as sheriff, he knew one of the most important people he could have with him was a good deputy chief.
“You’re only as good as your employees and we’ve had good ones,” he said. “Steve has been a rock for me, and the Pike County Board of Supervisors has always found a way to help us get what we needed.”
Shepherd recognized the citizens of Pike County who stood by him through each election in his 12 years as sheriff.
“Y’all knew me and what I stood for,” he said. “Retirement is bittersweet, but I’m ready to move on. I hope the next administration continues moving the department in the right direction.”
Investigator Lance Falvey gave an emotional farewell to Shepherd and Rushing.
“Being law enforcement officers is not just a job and nothing qualifies that like these two men,” he said.
Falvey told a story about his first day at the sheriff’s office, how Shepherd called him after work and asked how his day went, if he needed anything and if there was anything Shepherd could do to improve.
“I found out later that he does that for everyone,” he said. “In seven years, I’ve always had a special place at his table, and every holiday he made sure those working to protect others had something to eat. It doesn’t get much better than that.”
