Let us not forget Deputy Sheriff Michael Andrew Norris of Monroe
County Sheriff's Office, Georgia, died on September
14, 2014. We will also remember him on his birthdate, January 5 every year. Let
us honor this fallen policeman by remembering how he lived on this earth and
treasure his memories.
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Deputy Sheriff
Michael Andrew Norris
Monroe
County Sheriff's Office, Georgia
End of Watch: Sunday, September 14, 2014 |
Deputy Sheriff
Michael Andrew
Norris
Monroe County
Sheriff's Office, Georgia
End of Watch: Sunday, September 14, 2014
Bio & Incident Details
Age: 24
Tour: 2 years
Badge
# 258
Cause: Gunfire
Incident
Date:
9/13/2014
Weapon: Handgun
Offender: Apprehended
Deputy
Sheriff Michael Norris succumbed to a gunshot he suffered two days earlier when
he and another deputy responded to a call of an armed suicidal man at a home in
the 100 block of Haley Lane, in Juliette, at approximately 5:45 pm.
As the deputies approached the front door the subject opened fire with a handgun, wounding both deputies. During the exchange of gunfire the subject was wounded in the leg. He was then taken into custody at the scene.
Deputy Norris was transported to the Macon Medical Center where he was pronounced brain dead the following day, but kept on life support for two days so his organs could be donated.
Deputy Norris had served with the Monroe County Sheriff's Office for two years. He is survived by his wife, parents, and one sibling.
As the deputies approached the front door the subject opened fire with a handgun, wounding both deputies. During the exchange of gunfire the subject was wounded in the leg. He was then taken into custody at the scene.
Deputy Norris was transported to the Macon Medical Center where he was pronounced brain dead the following day, but kept on life support for two days so his organs could be donated.
Deputy Norris had served with the Monroe County Sheriff's Office for two years. He is survived by his wife, parents, and one sibling.
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It is with heavy hearts
that the Georgia Public Safety Training Center announces the funeral
arrangements for Monroe County Deputy Michael Andrew Norris. Deputy Norris
passed away Sunday, September 14, 2014, from injuries sustained in the line of
duty. Funeral services will be held at 2:00 p.m., Friday, September 19, 2014,
at the Georgia Public Safety Training Center, 1000 Indian Springs Drive,
Forsyth, GA 31029 with interment in Culloden City Cemetery. Elder Matt Yawn
will officiate. The family will greet friends from 5:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m.,
Thursday, September 18, 2014, at the Georgia Public Safety Training Center.
[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.gpstc.org/deputy-michael-andrew-norris/]
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Jurors ‘needed to hear that we wanted
the death penalty,’ father of slain deputy says
June
16, 2017 4:06 PM
Jurors in Christopher Keith Calmer’s death penalty trial never heard Michael Norris’ family or friends say they wanted Calmer to
die for his crimes.
Norris, a
24-year-old Monroe County sheriff’s deputy, was fatally shot in 2014 at the threshold of Calmer’s parents’
home. He and deputy Jeff Wilson had gone there after receiving a report of a suicidal person.
Jurors took
just 30 minutes to find Calmer guilty of murder and a string of other crimes stemming from
the shooting. A day later, it took them just half an hour to sentence him to
life without the possibility of parole.
Bennett Norris, the slain deputy’s father, said he’s almost
positive jurors would have reached a different decision if they’d heard his
son’s family and friends say they wanted Calmer to get a death sentence.
“They didn’t know how we felt about it,” he said. “They needed to hear that we wanted the death penalty.”
Due to the
law, witnesses who delivered victim impact statements during the penalty phase
of Calmer’s trial were barred from commenting on a possible
sentence, although Calmer’s family and friends were allowed to plead with jurors to spare his life.
At one point the jury actually was split 9-3 in favor of the death penalty, Jonathan Adams, district attorney of the Towaliga Judicial Circuit, said he’s learned. In order to sentence Calmer to death, the jury’s decision had to be unanimous.
During jury selection, a number of potential
jurors were removed from the pool because they said they could not consider all
three sentencing options — life, life without the possibility of parole and
death — as the law requires, Adams said.
“It wasn’t them saying we
cannot support the death penalty, showing some kind of changing trend in
America,” he
said. “We lost 2-1 more jurors because they either felt
that the only appropriate sentence was the death penalty, or they could not
consider life with parole.
“It makes it hard getting a
jury that is able to be strong toward those harsher punishments,” Adams said.
He said he thinks lawmakers should
consider a change that removes a life-with-parole sentence from the list of
options in cases involving a police officer’s killing and other “heinous”
crimes.
It’s been more than three years since a
Georgia jury has handed down a death sentence.
Two other men charged in Middle Georgia
cop killings are waiting on their death penalty trials to begin.
Ralph Stanley Elrod Jr. is charged in the Nov. 6, 2016, fatal
shooting of Peach County deputies Daryl Smallwood and Sgt. Patrick Sondron.
In Dodge County, Royheem Delshawn Deeds is charged in the Aug. 13, 2016,
killing of Eastman police officer Timothy Kevin Smith.
It’s unclear whether the death penalty
will be sought against Ricky Dubose and Donnie Russell Rowe, the prison inmates
who escaped from a prison bus June 13 after fatally
shooting corrections officers Curtis Billue and Christopher Monica.
‘God will give
us peace’
Talking with The Telegraph on Friday,
Norris said Calmer’s sentence — life without the possibility of parole — isn’t
true punishment. He can still read books and talk with his mother, as he did
while in jail awaiting trial.
“He got a slap on the hand,” the slain
deputy’s father said.
Long before his son was killed, Norris
felt a person’s penalty should match the crime.
“I feel like our whole society
has gone off the tracks,”
Norris said. “The consequence (Calmer) got is not what
was deserved.”
The death penalty should be the
mandatory sentence for someone who ambushes and kills a police officer and
could serve as a deterrent for others who might one day consider doing the
same, he said.
“Until we get where we are
responsible for our actions, things will continue to get worse,” Norris said.
He praised the team that prosecuted the
case, and he said he’s thankful for all the community support his family has
received.
Looking toward Sunday, his third
Father’s Day without his son, Norris said, “I’ll never
get to talk to my son again. It’s something that will never go away.”
His family is trying to find a new
normal.
“God will give us peace.”
One day, Calmer, like everyone, will
have to answer for his life, he said.
“When he meets his maker, he’ll have to
deal with it.”
Amy Leigh Womack: 478-744-4398, @awomackmacon
INTERNET SOURCE: http://www.macon.com/news/local/crime/article156618809.html
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