Brandon Moore nominated for AMW’s “All Star Award”

By RANDA WAGNER -

Mor­row County Sher­iff Deputy Detec­tive Bran­don Moore is one of six national can­di­dates nom­i­nated for the “America’s Most Wanted” 2012 All-Star Award. This is the eighth year for the award designed to give spe­cial recog­ni­tion to police, fire­fight­ers, EMTs and other first respon­ders who are ded­i­cated to ‘serve and protect.’

Moore was shot five times by Shane Roush on Oct. 21, 2010 after a dis­pute between Roush and landowner Jeff Lev­er­ing on CR 179.

America’s Most Wanted Host John Walsh will present the 2012 All-Star win­ner with a check for $10,000 at a cer­e­mony in Wash­ing­ton, D.C. in May. The win­ner also receives a trip to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series All-Star Chal­lenge at the Char­lotte Motor Speed­way in North Carolina.

Nom­i­na­tions this year came from groups and agen­cies around the United States. The National Sheriff’s Asso­ci­a­tion nom­i­nated Moore, who knew noth­ing of it until Sher­iff Steve Bren­ne­man called him March 30 and told him to get in con­tact with AMW. Moore was nom­i­nated last year along with about 20 other competitors.

To pre­pare for the com­pe­ti­tion, AMW will run a seg­ment on each can­di­date prior to the announce­ment of the win­ner. The Mor­row County Sheriff’s office was the set­ting last Thurs­day for film­ing inter­views with offi­cers to be aired on America’s Most Wanted this Spring. Ohio HD Video of Colum­bus was hired by AMW to con­duct the inter­views, and they spent much of April 5 per­form­ing indi­vid­ual ses­sions with Bren­ne­man, Sgt. Rob Chal­fant and Det. Moore, and film­ing a par­tial re-enactment in the soy­bean field where the inci­dent took place.

“It def­i­nitely caught me off guard — I had no idea any­one nom­i­nated me again this year,” Moore said. “I found out Fri­day — the sher­iff called and told me I needed to get in con­tact with America’s Most Wanted, and it all hap­pened fast.”

Moore returned to work about four weeks ago with no doctor’s restric­tions. He is back as a detec­tive han­dling mostly bur­glar­ies, prop­erty crimes and thefts, a role he is com­fort­able in.

The film crew set up in three loca­tions in the sheriff’s office and asked each offi­cer spe­cific ques­tions. Inter­viewer Chris Mar­tin started with Sher­iff Bren­ne­man, ask­ing what specif­i­cally makes Det. Moore such a spe­cial deputy?

“Num­ber one is his faith,” Bren­ne­man responded. “He has a great faith in God. He has a com­mit­ment to his faith, fam­ily and the job here. “

Bren­ne­man spoke of Moore’s pos­i­tive atti­tude and per­sonal motto where he tells him­self each morn­ing as he pre­pares for work, ‘Not me — not today: I’m going home.’

“From this inci­dent it shows he def­i­nitely stands out on that,” Bren­ne­man said. “To be shot four times, go down and then return­ing fire to dis­able his assailant — that’s incred­i­ble. A lot of peo­ple in these sit­u­a­tions get shot and give up. Bran­don didn’t give up — he fought back — he was going home.”

When asked why Bren­ne­man thought Moore is all ‘All-Star,’ the sher­iff responded, “He was able to main­tain a ‘calm’ until help could get there — he took action for himself.”

Bren­ne­man com­mended Moore’s mind­set in the hos­pi­tal say­ing a lot of peo­ple not only give up, they will become bit­ter and be mad a the world.

“Bran­don made a choice in the first week in the hos­pi­tal — I can be bit­ter or I can use this to my bet­ter­ment,” the sher­iff recalled. “He’s back to work with no lim­i­ta­tions after a year and a half when he was told if he came back at all, it would be three years. He has a drive, ded­i­ca­tion to sur­vive and be there for his fam­ily and community.”

Sgt. Rob Chal­fant was first on the scene after the shoot­ing that day in Octo­ber. He was asked what stood out in his mind about the aftermath.

After hand­cuff­ing the sus­pect and his wife, the sergeant said he moved on to Moore, who was sit­ting on the ground close to his vehicle.

“He had a tourni­quet on his leg and was apply­ing pres­sure to a lower abdom­i­nal wound,” Chal­fant said. “I asked, ‘Why didn’t you answer when I called?’ He had a bul­let in his lung and couldn’t yell when I called for him. I asked him if he was alright. He said he was doing okay, and asked for the phone so he could call his wife. His ‘duty phone’ had been blown to bits.”

Chal­fant said, as Moore’s super­vi­sor, Bran­don was ‘like family.”

“It was like one of my kids got hurt,” he said. He was impressed at the accu­racy of Moore’s returned fire at the dis­tance it was made.

“He was able to put the sus­pect down to where he didn’t hurt any­one else, because (Roush) actu­ally turned and started to fire on the Lev­er­ings,” Chal­fant told inter­view­ers. “He put the tourni­quet on his leg and applied pres­sure to his wound. When I got to him, there wasn’t much left for me to do (with him) until the medics got there. The scene was secure.”

After a year and a half, the inci­dent is still clear in Moore’s memory.

“I didn’t see him come out from behind,” Moore said of Roush. “When I heard those first three shots, the first thing I thought was, this is really hap­pen­ing; those (bul­lets) are com­ing at me. Somebody’s try­ing to kill me.”

The inter­viewer asked Det. Moore what was going through his mind while ‘all that’ was happening?

“So many things went through my mind,” Moore responded, “mostly — will I ever see my wife and kids again? Did I tell the dis­patcher I am back in the field and not in the dri­ve­way? Things like that. I was try­ing to run away from the sound of the gun­fire. But when my leg broke and I hit the ground, that sort of ‘flipped the switch’ to tell me, you have no choice — you have to fight back now.”

He recalled with­out even think­ing about it, he real­ized he was get­ting his gun out of the hol­ster and prepar­ing to fight back.

When asked what he did after the gun­fire ceased and he was wait­ing for backup, Moore said, “By then I real­ized there were short odds in a shootout like that and that I hon­estly shouldn’t be alive, I laid there and sang a praise song to God because I was so thank­ful I was still alive. I had a good feel­ing that I would make it to the hospital.”

Moore said he esti­mates it was about six min­utes from the time the shoot­ing started to when backup arrived and, “to hear the siren com­ing down the road when I’m lay­ing there bleed­ing onto a soy­bean field, was a good feeling.”

Why return to the job? Moore was asked.

“After a year and a half of phys­i­cal ther­apy three days a week and lift­ing weights, the chal­lenge for me to return to work was Shane Roush tried to take some­thing from me he had no right to take — not only my life but my way of life,” Moore said. “The way I see it is, if I can get back to work and I don’t, then I’ve been defeated: and I don’t want to be defeated and give up.”

Roush even­tu­ally pleaded guilty and received a 25-year sen­tence for the assault on Moore and the Lev­er­ing family.

Moore became the first Ohioan to be awarded a Con­gres­sional Badge of Brav­ery on Jan­u­ary 12, 2012 and was cho­sen as the Charles “Bud” Meeks Deputy Sher­iff of the Year from the National Sheriff’s Asso­ci­a­tion in 2011.

Sup­port­ers can vote for Moore online once a day (per email address) for Moore at www.amw.com/allstar/2012.

Note: Three color pho­tos accom­pany this arti­cle in the April 11 print edi­tion of the Sentinel.

Posted by Randa Wagner on Apr 11 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.