Fallen Okaloosa County deputy lauded for saving lives, bringing 'sunshine' to others

In the relatively short five-and-a-half years he'd spent as an Okaloosa County deputy prior to his tragic Christmas Eve death, Corporal Ray Hamilton had received two Life Saving Awards.

One of the awards came when Hamilton, who had begun his work life as a nurse, provided life-saving CPR to a woman in cardiac arrest. The other, according to Sheriff Eric Aden, involved Hamilton preventing a woman from taking her own life.

"In 2019, he literally talked a lady off the roof. She was on the roof and he talked her off the roof," Aden told reporters during a news conference he conducted Tuesday to "give Ray the respect he deserved."

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Hamilton, 34, died on the afternoon of Dec. 24 when a man barricaded inside a home on North Park Boulevard fired a shot from inside the residence that struck the deputy, who had stationed himself behind a backyard fence, in the forehead. Timothy Price-Williams, 43, was arrested soon after the shooting and following Hamilton's death was charged with first degree premediated murder.

Aden told reporters that Ray Hamilton had been named well, as he brought sunshine to the lives of the people he worked with and for. He said he was taken aback at the number of people who showed up at the hospital where the wounded officer was taken to "show respect in his final moments."

He becomes the sixth Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office officer killed in the line of duty, the fifth since 2008.

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Support:Donation for deputy's family being accepted through Star Charities

"As with any of these things, we are just rocked to our core, heartbroken" Aden said. "He was a proud member of this agency and a well-loved member of this agency."

Hamilton left nursing to enter the field of law enforcement, Aden said. He and his wife, also a nurse, had moved to Okaloosa County from Central Florida.

His first assignment, in 2017, was as a crime scene investigator, Aden said. He moved within two years to become a field training officer and, according to the sheriff, was "probably the best field training officer we've ever had at this agency."

"Everybody loved working with him," Aden said.

Hamilton started his local career in Destin and had since moved on to the Sheriff's Office north end office in Crestview, where he and his wife were living at the time of his death.

Aden said Hamilton became a member of the agency's Special Response Team just over a year ago, so he had just shed his status as rookie when the fatal shooting took place. His death occurred a week ahead of his wedding anniversary.

Saturday, the day of the anniversary, is when Hamilton's wife, who he described as "probably the toughest person I've ever met" will hold a visitation between 9 and 10 a.m. at the Destin-Fort Walton Beach Convention Center on Okaloosa Island. A celebration of life will take place between 10 and 11 a.m. at the same location.

Following the event, law enforcement officers will honor Hamilton with a procession to the Crestview Convention Center on Commerce Drive in the Hub City.

Aden said when he'd first received word of a domestic violence suspect who was barricaded inside a home he wasn't shocked. "We get that quite often," he said.

Learning an officer he had come to know had been killed, however, hit hard.

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"It's just rough. You start saying things you don't normally say. You start praying ... hard," he said.

The risk of violence is always there for a law enforcement officer, Aden said. Five of the six line of duty deaths in Okaloosa County history have occurred as a result of officers responding to domestic violence or mental health-related incidents.

The sixth death occurred in the 1920s when Sheriff John M. Summerlin was in a vehicle that was struck by a train.

Aden said he has received calls of support for the fallen deputy from national, state and local leaders and the local community has stepped up with its own expressions of grief and offers of assistance. He said a fund has been established to raise money for the Hamilton family through the county's Star Charities program.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Okaloosa County deputy Ray Hamilton honored after death Christmas Eve