Loudoun Supervisors Approve $10K Donation For Wounded Deputy

ASHBURN, VA — As a Loudoun County Sheriff’s Deputy faces a long road to recovery after being shot earlier this month at a Sterling Walmart, the county Board of Supervisors has voted to donate $10,000 they are asking go toward the officer’s rehabilitation costs.

Deputy Camron Gentry was shot along with two store security officers on Jan. 2 when they tried to arrest a man who police said had stolen merchandise from the store. Steven Thodos of Sterling faces 11 criminal charges in the incident after being arrested following a search for Thodos, who injured three people in the shooting.

County Supervisors voted Wednesday to make the donation to the Loudoun First Responders Foundation and have asked the not-for-profit organization for the money to be put toward donations that have been made to help pay for Gentry’s rehabilitation. As of Thursday, a Go Fund Me effort has raised more than $113,000 of the $125,000 goal that was set by the Loudoun-Dulles FOP Charitable Foundation, which organized the fundraising effort.

The one-time donation will be taken from the county’s general fund.

“This is unusual, we don’t typically do this and I get that,” Board Chair Phyllis J. Randall said during Wednesday’s meeting. “This young man’s injury is so extensive that he is going to be years in recovery…we can’t do this for everybody.

"I realize it’s county taxpayer money, I do, and I realized this can’t happen all the time, but there are times I think exceptions should be made, and for me, this is one of those exceptions.”

The board approved the donation 8-0 with Supervisor Tony R. Buffington was absent. Other supervisors agreed that because of the nature of Gentry's injuries and the fact they happened in the line of duty, that the county should make an exception in using funds to assist Gentry.

“Hopefully this doesn’t happen so frequently that it becomes a regular thing that we have to do, but it’s just something for us to just kind of consider, maybe in the future if this happens, you know, as just kind of a practice going forward,” Supervisor Matthew F. Letourneau said during Wednesday's meeting.

According to the Go Fund Me page, Gentry — who has already undergone a number of surgeries for his injuries — will undergo another surgery Thursday to do skin graft work and to place a pin in his hip, which was fractured and shattered in the shooting. The page stated that doctors are hoping to be able to move Gentry to a longer-term rehab center where he can continue to recover.

“Camron is humbled by all the prayers, well wishes, supportive Friends, Family, and His Loudoun Family too,” the Go Fund Me page stated. “As well as the outpouring of concern from the Public. People he’s never met from all over the Country.”