In Memory

Francis Paul Scurry - Class Of 1968

 

FRANCIS PAUL SCURRY
CMA 1967 -1968
Batesburg, SC

 

 

 

 

Paul was a CMA Cadet from a senior in 1967 to a post graduate in 1968.  We have no obituary for Paul but we have a story about his heroic death as a Police Officer in Nashville Tennessee in on May 17, 1996.  This information came to me through his 1967 CMA roommate  Dick Jackson CMA 1966-1968, his story about Paul will be listed in the remarks section below this "In Memory Page. I will also add a couple links to website pages that honors and outlines Paul's story. I have added a summary from a newspaper article that Dick sent to me.  This is the oddest "In Memory" page that I have written. 

Police Officer Francis Scurry was shot and killed while backing up two detectives who were serving an aggravated assault warrant at approximately 9:30 am.

 The officers arrived at the apartment, knocked on the door, and received no response. After a maintenance man attempted to kick the door in, one of the suspects came to the door and said he had been sleeping. The suspect was immediately arrested.

As the officers began searching the apartment for the second suspect, they noticed that a shelf near the attic crawl space was broken. Officer Scurry and a second officer entered the attic and immediately confronted the suspect, who began shouting that the officers should shoot him, and then opened fire on the officers. The second officer was struck in the knee and fell to the ground. Officer Scurry was struck several times but was able to return fire, seriously wounding the suspect. The suspect then exited the attic and continued firing at the other detectives.

Responding officers attempted to enter the apartment in order to rescue Officer Scurry but were confronted by the suspect. The suspect was yelling that he wanted to surrender, but refused to drop his gun while attempting to reload it. One of the responding officers then fired on the suspect with a shotgun, killing him. Another officer entered the attic and began CPR. While administering CPR, the ceiling collapsed and the officer fell to the floor below. Officer Scurry was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead a short time later.

Officer Scurry was a U.S. Army veteran and had served with the Metro Nashville Police Department for 21 years.

             

 

Link to Officers Down Memorial Page. Family, Friends & Fellow Officers Remember...

https://www.odmp.org/officer/reflections/14759-police-officer-francis-paul-scurry

 

 

Dedication To The Paul Scurry Building...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Toward the end of his speech marking the opening of a new crime lab and Madison Precinct building, Metro Police Chief Steve Anderson stopped talking, suddenly overcome by emotion.

Despite the occasion — the grand opening of the city’s full-service crime lab, the first of its kind for a local law enforcement agency in Tennessee — the police chief’s celebratory tone shifted when he read the name on the building: Paul Scurry.

Anderson entered the police academy with Scurry in 1975, and the two enjoyed a 21-year friendship that ended when a gunman on the run fatally shot Scurry in 1996.

“Nashville lost a good officer that day,” Anderson said with a catch in his voice. “Nashville lost a good man that day.”

Scurry was 48.

Anderson said he hopes Scurry’s legacy inspires the officers working at the precinct housed in the new building’s first floor.

“He was a good officer, a dedicated officer,” Anderson said. “I’d like to have a hundred just like him every day.”

Scurry was attempting to arrest a man wanted on several warrants. He climbed into the attic of a Cheyenne Boulevard apartment, where he was shot several times. Another officer who entered the apartment to try to help Scurry fatally shot the fugitive.

Several members of Scurry’s family sat front and center during Tuesday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony for the precinct building, led by his daughter Melanie Scurry West. She dabbed at her eyes with a tissue after she helped unveil a plaque in her father’s honor during the ceremony.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 
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05/21/20 02:40 PM #1    

Randy Jennings (1963)

Posted for Dick Jackson

 

Paul and I were roommates and friends at at Carolina Military Academy in 1967...we last saw each other at Ft. Jackson, in March of 1968. I have been trying to locate him ever since...I just found out about Paul’s death yesterday and have reached out to Melanie. Paul was a true hero, I miss his smile and friendly attitude, a great man..

Sgt US Army 1968-74. Dick Jackson

CMA 1966-68

February 18, 2020

 


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