Boone County Board honors more Sheriff’s Deputies for heroism

By Bob Balgemann

Reporter

Not long ago Boone County Board Chairman Karl Johnson commented about the number of times county Sheriff Dave Ernest had appeared before the board to offer something positive about his deputies.

Many of those times it was to commend one or more of his deputies for saving a life.

There was more of that Feb. 21, only this time, one deputy was commended for twice going above and beyond expectations.

One of those stories had been heard a number of times before and went something like this: a deputy responded to such and such an address where he found an unresponsive male or female. What followed was action that resulted in saving someone’s life.

Deputy Charles Schutz was the deputy in this instance and his life-saving effort took place Jan. 4, 2018. He administered one and a half doses of Narcan and, in a matter of seconds, the woman was breathing normally. She since has recovered.

But that wasn’t the only historic act for Deputy Schutz. The sheriff recalled how a dash camera video recorded the deputy while assisting a DUI stop in which he pushed two fellow deputies out of harm’s way after they almost were run over by a passing motorist.

“That went viral, with almost one million views,” Ernest said. “The law is that when an officer is on the road you’re supposed to yield to him, to go around him. Another DUI driver almost struck him as he was too close to the side of the road.”

Schutz is in his second year as a sheriff’s deputy, after serving for 13 years as a corrections officer in the county jail. “He does an amazing job,” his boss said.

After offering those accolades, Sheriff Ernest brought up another life-saving incident, this one involving Deputy Adam Stark. That one occurred Jan. 22 when Stark was dispatched to another heroin overdose, involving an unresponsive female. He administered two doses of Narcan and the woman responded and started breathing normally. She also was taken to a hospital and has since recovered.

Narcan is an agent that when administered to someone who has overdosed on heroin, can bring that individual back to life. But the sheriff said it’s all about the timing and that quite a few of his deputies have been in the right place at the right time.

Both Schutz and Stark received the Lifesaving award.

“I didn’t think we would have had as many (certified saves) as we did in the last year,” the sheriff said. “It was due to the use of Narcan, which means we have a lot of heroin use in this county. We’ve probably had 10 saves in the last eight months.”

Board member Marshall Newhouse thanked the sheriff for…

For complete article, pick up the March 25 Belvidere Daily Republican.