Forsyth Sheriff's Deputies Named State Officers of the Year

Two Forsyth County sheriff’s deputies have received a top honor from a Georgia veterans’ organization for their heroics during the shooting at the Forsyth County Courthouse on June 6.

According to the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office, deputies Bobby Francis and Brian Chatham earned the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW)‘s coveted Law Enforcement Officer of the Year Award. The two deputies had been recommended by the local VFW post for saving the life of a wounded fellow deputy at the outset of the courthouse shooting.

On the morning of June 6, the deputies responded to the shots fired call at the courthouse at the beginning of the attack by self-proclaimed sovereign citizen Dennis Marx. Once Francis and Chatham arrived at the courthouse, they discovered fellow deputy Daniel Rush, who had been shot in the leg after being the first officer to encounter Marx.

With the Marx still active in the area, Francis and Chatham applied a tourniquet to Rush’s wounded leg and rushed him to safety. He was soon on his way to North Fulton Hospital in Roswell, where he was treated and recovered.

Marx was killed by police shortly thereafter.