Grady Co. Deputies Honored For Saving Shooting Victim

Back in January 2017, Clairessa and Riley Don Shelton’s son's ex-girlfriend Stacy Schroll showed up to their home near Naples uninvited.

Clairessa called 911.

“She’s threatened to shoot me before and I think she’s got a gun,” she told the dispatcher.

Her husband of three decades took action to protect her from Schroll.

“I pushed her in the bedroom and shut the door,” Don Shelton said. “And that’s when she (Schroll) pulled the trigger and shot me through the back of the arm.”

“Ma’am talk to me. What happened?” The dispatcher asked.

“She’s shooting him! She’s shooting my husband,” Clairessa screamed.

“She pointed the gun at me and I reached to grab the gun,” Don Shelton told News 9. “She pulled the trigger, it went across these knuckles, then shot me in the face.”

“Oh, God. Please hurry. I don’t know if my husband is dead or not,” Clairessa told the dispatcher.

After the suspect was detained and Clairessa was safe. Corporal Chris Kennel and Sergeant Terry Alexander with the Grady County Sheriff's office started emergency care. Doctors said without their actions, Don wouldn't have made it.

But after surviving that ordeal, he received a new diagnosis.

“He has stage four colon cancer that went to the liver,” Clairessa explained. “And it was on his bucket list that he wanted them to be recognized – that was one of the things.”

Clairessa worked hard to make that happen. Corporal Kennel and Sergeant Alexander were humbled to received citations for their heroic efforts.

“We were just doing what needed to be done,” said Sergeant Alexander.

“I don’t feel like I did anything that any other deputy wouldn’t have done in that predicament,” Corporal Kennel said.

“They’re fine men and they’d do anything for anyone,” said Undersheriff Phil Blevins. “They work hard for everyone here in the county.”

“They deserve it,” Don said about the citation.

“We finally, finally got it,” Clairessa said. “So that’s off the list.”

Schroll pleaded guilty and is currently in prison.