he was in it for the long haul, or so he thought. i loved the job. this was my career. at age 25, steven rankin has seven months under his belt as an officer with the crisp county sheriff s department in georgia. in the predawn hours of february 2nd, 2006, everything is about to change. deputy rankin is following a driver who is blasting his car radio. i really thought he was a dui. i mean, with the loud music and the way he was kind of erratic driving, i figured he was a dui, especially at 2:00 in the morning, coming from the city. with the police video camera on in the patrol car, the deputy walks up to the driver. all the windows are pretty tinted. even with my lights, my takedown lights on, i couldn t really see into the car too well. i leaned in to the driver s side door to speak to him. and i thought he d roll the window down, like most people do. but he just opened the door up. all i saw was a flash, the bang. and that was it. [ gunshot ] i never saw a gun. all i saw w
sheriff s department in georgia. in the predawn hours of february 2nd, 2006, everything is about to change. deputy rankin is following a driver who is blasting his car radio. i really thought he was a dui. i mean, with the loud music and the way he was kind of erratic driving, i figured he was a dui, especially at 2:00 in the morning, coming from the city. with the police video camera on in the patrol car, the deputy walks up to the driver. all the windows are pretty tinted. even with my lights, takedown lights on, i couldn t really see into the car too well. i leaned in to the driver s side door to speak to him. and i thought he d roll the window down like most people do. but he just opened the door up. all i saw was a flash, the bang. and that was it. i never saw a gun. all i saw was a blast. i hit the ground. i thought i had died. as the officer lay bleeding, deputy ben bray is already on his way.