Austin’s Daily Commentary – Community Support For The Families Of Fallen and Injured Deputies

Austin: The love and support of our community directed this week to the families of Brandon Sikes and Gavin White, the two officers that were fired upon by a maniac in the process of routine paperwork being served on him. Gavin White continues to recover from his gunshot wound to the face. We are told that surgery at Wellstar Hospital has gone well and that they are expecting him to make a recovery.

Again, a very long and tedious process, very significant injuries to say the least, and God bless the doctors and the medical team working on him. Again, the family of Gavin White has our complete and total support. We're going to do whatever we can in this community to let that family know that Deputy White is supported.

I'm not sure what we can say about the family of Brandon Sikes. They are undergoing and attempting to navigate the toughest loss any of them can possibly imagine. The seven-year veteran is a well-known officer in Columbia County, does a lot of community work.

He's an active police officer with many of our young people. As a matter of fact, he's in the rotating security shift at Augusta Prep, and there are a lot of students that were visibly shaken by what has happened. He was a good man and, again, very well respected among his peers.

Sikes' loss to the force is something that they unfortunately have to contemplate and have to consider every day in what they do. Every law enforcement officer that puts on a badge and a gun and drives around in our community performing routine tasks, never routinely, but routine tasks, have the specter in their rearview mirror all the time of a possible violent confrontation with someone out of control, and that is exactly what happened Saturday. No need to get into the details now.

There's plenty of time for that later, but again, our hearts and our prayers and our support need to be directed to the family of Brandon Sikes as they continue to navigate this terrible loss. Deputy White's family as well. Let's come together as a community, make sure that all their financial and material needs are taken care of, and we will move forward trying to help them repair their lives and move on with futures without Deputy Sikes and hopefully with a rehabilitated and completely recovered Deputy White.

God bless them all. And that's the comment. I'm Austin Rhodes, 95.1 FM News Talk, WGAC.