By HEATHER KEELS heather.keels@herald-mail.com


A Smithsburg Police Department officer was shot and killed Wednesday night, according to Smithsburg Police Chief Charles R. Stanford.

Officer Christopher Nicholson was shot at about 10 p.m. in the area of Welty Church Road, police said.

A suspect in the shooting was taken into custody at 11:40 p.m. near the Brethren in Christ Ringgold Meeting House at 14426 Misty Meadow Road, according to Hagerstown Police Sgt. Paul Kifer.

Maryland State Police Sgt. Robert Reid said the suspect was at Washington County Hospital at 1:09 a.m. Reid would not confirm if the suspect would be staying at the hospital or if he would be transferred.

Washington County Sheriff Douglas Mullendore said roads were closed in the area of the shooting and police were attempting to secure the scene at 12:30 a.m.

Nicholson was sworn in as Smithsburg’s third officer on July 11, 2006. The former correctional officer graduated from the Western Maryland Police Academy on June 30 of that year.



Terrible

I heard this on the news this morning on the ride into work.

The radio said the killer was shot also.

May the officer rest in peace and sincerest condolences to his family.

And may the killer rot in hell.

Amen!

X 2

X 3, and this goes as well for Brandon Morris, the snipers, and every other person convicted of a violent crime that sits in criminal facilities that we pay to keep operating.

My sincere sorrow to the family and friends of officer Nicholson. This is such a shame to have someone who is here to protect us be gunned down like this! Anymore, it's like a war zone out there. I guess it always has been, but things have gotten much worse. I would not have the courage to be a police officer. They take their lives into their own hands by even stopping motorists. My hats off to all of them.

From the police officers that I've talked to, the domestic dispute call is the one they hate the most because they never know what will happen. Unfortunately this is apparently what occurred in this case. I agree with the previous posts, especially Kid's. When someone takes a life and turns a wife into a widow and leaves children without a father (not sure if that is the case here though), they should pay the ulitimate penalty.

My baby brother's a fairly new cop (only on the job for 18 months) and every time I hear a story like this it gives me the willies. Thank god there are people in the world who want to protect all the rest of us. I know I sure wouldn't have it in me to be that brave on the job, day in and day out... knowing that as you report to work each shift it could so easily be your last...

I'm married to a cop, so when I hear something like this, it hits me pretty hard. It's always in the back of my mind, but it's something that you try not to think about.

Agreed -- if it is the killer in the hospital I hope he...well...doesn't make it, either.

according to the latest at the H-M, his injuries are not life-threatening and they've got him under sedation. where's a vindictive hospital orderly with a pillow when you need 'em? also, apparently he killed his girlfriend in Halfway first.

My prayers go out to the families of those he killed.
This kid is a local kid that grew up on Water Street and has been in trouble many, many times. At least now he will be put away but it's too little, to late.

Son of a ...

The bastard has an extensive criminal record -- wonder if he ever did a full sentence? I hope this gets reported extensively and in detail -- what were his priors, what sentence, what did he actually serve?

Kills 2 and then when he gets into a gunfight with several cops he is only wounded. Damn that bad luck...

assaults, escape from confinement, destruction of property, bank issues...

here... http://casesearch.courts.state.md.us/inqui...sDisclaimer.jis

search pryor, douglas w(ayne). born in 78.

Doug Pryor was two years behind me at SHS and he was always in trouble. I was at a funeral this morning for a close friend (a couple of my friends are police officers, but not in Smithsburg) and they were talking about it. She was a dental hygienist at one of the correctional facilities and about a month ago he found out that she was cheating on him with one of the inmates. He flipped out and he beat her up pretty bad and they split up. Not sure if they were trying to work things out or not, but he went to her house and shot her last night and when he was on his way home, he called his parents and told them. They called the police and the police found him in the church parking lot. This is a little unclear, but they said that when the first officer showed up, Pryor fired at him through the officer's windshield and struck him in the chest or above it, killing him. Pryor was shot in the leg, but I'm not sure if that was from the first officer or not.

And those are just the 'adult' offences. He was in alot of trouble as a kid also but they I'm sure the records are locked since he was a juvinile at the time.

Yeah, like I said, he was always in trouble back then. I think I remember him punching a female teacher in the face.

damn. hardcore.

The only good these folks can do for society is become instant organ donors.

It is a shame that this young officer was killed. I am going to make a couple of points some might like them others will not. This brings up some questions and after the police department investigates I hope that the County Commissioners look into this as well.

1. Did the lack of staffing contribute to this? How long was he waiting for backup? He was the only officer on duty in Smithsburg how many were on at the Sheriff’s Department?

2. Did communications play a role in this? Did the officer killed know he was going to be facing someone armed, dangerous and who had already killed someone? Or did he think it was a domestic disturbance as reported?

3. Are our officers trained well enough? Where was he waiting for his backup that the suspect would see him and get close enough to kill him? We had an incident involving the Sheriff's Department with the bank robbery where a weapon got taken. Officers in Washington County seem to be in situations they shouldn't be?

4. This one will stir some people up but you need to really think about it. How did an armed suspect kill two people, shoot it out with what should be the best trained, best equipped, best shooting officers in the county, and only get shot in the leg? He should be dead period. Officers are not trained to wound, they are trianed to kill. Now before a couple of you go off think about this.

You are in a store a gunmen comes in takes you hostage and uses you as a shield leaving that store. The officers have a just a few inches to take a shot. Do you trust them? They can't do what they were supposed with a suspect that doesn't have a hostage. You fire on someone you have to take them out if not they can still fire that weapon and are a danger. I know I wouldn't trust the local department to rescue me in a situation like that. I would be afraid they would hit me and not the suspect.


Overall, after the dust settles our lawmakers and government need to evaluate the level of training and law enforcement capability in Washington County. They owe it to the memory of the officer, the young woman and everyone else in the county. Quit bleeding money to the School Board so the head of it cna have a six figure salary and put some more money into adequate staffing of local law enforcement.

I can answer #3 for you.

I was told today, by my friends/officers, that Smithsburg does not have FTO, which are Field Training Officers. So basically, he gets out of the academy, applies for a job, and he's now an officer. My friends, which are officers in Mont. and Loudon counties, had FTO; that is, they rode with and accompanied veteran officers for a period of 3 months (at least I think it was 3).

They also told me that they are basically trained to aim for the chest. I forget the exact terminology, but it was something like the center most dense area (or something like that).

It's called center mass.

4. Suspect is on the move and shot from a distance where a deadly accurate shot is difficult. Suspect is only incapacitated and the cops take him into custody without killing him. The suspect is incapacitated and no longer a threat, so the cops don't get to play judge, jury, and executioner. Oh, and the suspect was hit several times, including in the chest.

Seriously man, think about how dynamic and stressful these situations are before you go passing judgment on these cops' training and abilities. This isn't television.

I don't know what part of this thread is the most depressing.


May God rest their souls.

This was one of the first things that came to my mind when I read about this. I don't think that he would have been standing there in the open like he was if he knew that this man just killed someone. Made me wonder. I don't think that we should all start the blame game though. There's too much of that in this area.

I think that all officers should be doubled up at all times. It's a changing World out there and they all deserve a back up there with them.

We lived in Smithsburg until my daughter graduated. The Pryor boy was just a couple of years older than her. He was well known around town as a trouble maker by the adults- not kids.. He was into drugs for awhile. I just don't know what else he did.
I did see that his parents have custody of the children. I was hoping that the children didn't see anything that happened to thier mother. That is a big sigh of relief to me.
May God bless the poor souls he murdered.

We need to stick to the respectful memory of the officer in this thread.

Criticisms of the local police belong in it's own thread.

While some of Tony's questions/points are certainly valid, I do believe he watches too many CSI programs.




...just my humble opinion...

Agreed. The only thing that should matter right now is paying our respects to a young officer who made the ultimate sacrifice protecting us. There is plenty of time to armchair quarterback but that time isnt now

The service is Monday in Williamsport.

Yoss my humble opinion is that we need to have our elected officials find out what went wrong and fix the problems. We honor this young man by making sure something like this doesn't happen again. We need to make sure that every one of those men and women who are wearing the badge no that they have the best raining available, the best equipment and that if they need backup it will be there . That is the best way to honor him.


Now as for the personal dig in this thread (which doesn't say "pay respects" it says ...officer killed; suspect in custody) that should be "respectful" I don't watch those programs.

Tony

It would be nice to stop thinking political for as least one day or heck...even a week.

To assume that elected officials can simply pass law that "assures this will never happen again" is ridiculous. We have no control over the fact the judicial system allowed him to retain his knives and guns when requested to have them removed in a prior case, nor the ability to assure that as a criminal it could not be guaranteed he could not get his hands on additional weapons afterward.

As I stated previously we honor those that are heniously murdered in the line of duty and in every circumstance by providing a speedy trial and swift execution for those that commit such violent crimes that have no business being part of our society and even less business benefiting from a single penny that productive, law abiding citizens provide to allow them to live in a prison.

Sorry about the misquote on the suspect's wound Sman... they weren't sure how many times he was shot or where. I assumed it was more than in the leg though since his condition seemed to be more severe than just a leg wound.

I'm not sure that any amount of training could've prevented this tragedy from happening. When someone is hellbent on going out in a blaze, several people are probably going to get hurt.

I'm glad that he wasn't killed though, that's what he probably wanted. Now he gets to spend his life in jail and he's the perfect candidate to be Bubba's new bitch. His attitude will not get him far in there at all.

Kid you obliviously didn't read both of my postings. Do the Commissioners hold budget authority for the Sheriff's Department? Can you not make budget available for more training? Can you not authorize the hiring of more officers in the County? Can you or not make funds available to municipalities in the County that could be used for training law enforcement or hiring more law enforcement?

No Kid, don't sit here and tell us you can't do anything, that is unacceptable. Yes, things happen but you and the others sitting on the County Commission have within your power to take measures that can severely lessen the chance of this happening again.

Tony

Link to the Officer Down Memorial Page for him.

I agree. And it's real easy to be a Monday-morning quarterback when you don't know all the facts.

My husband knew the officer and will be attending the funeral on Christmas Eve.

wildblue, my sister said that he was planning to propose to his girlfriend on Christmas Eve or Christmas. Any truth to that? Not that it matters...

Evidently his mom was holding onto the ring for him, and he was going to propose on Christmas Eve.

Oh, this is so tragic.

Such a good young man. My thoughts and prayers go out to the family and all who knew him.

[quote name='Yossarian' date='Dec 21 2007, 07:01 AM' post='93870']
"We need to stick to the respectful memory of the officer in this thread."


God Bless all law enforcement, CPS workers, and Probation Officers responding to domestic violence calls. Many times as it is always said, these brave workers do not know who is behind the door or what they have done. The situation can change in an instant. Waiting for back up can feel like an eternity. Yet these brave souls do it daily & at all hours. These responders deserve praise and support. I am humbled.

GOD BLESS all who keep us regular folk safe and respond to our calls or to those next door. They do the job few want to do.
A special shout out to first responders I grew to respect back in Vegas: Las Vegas Metro, Clark County CPS, & Probation.

I am saddened for Officer Christopher Nicholson &, his family. Also for his girlfriend he planned to propose to on Christmas Day. It makes you count your blessings.

I went to the funeral today. It was a very touching show of support to see all of the different law enforcement agencies that sent representatives.

Law enforcement (and firefighter) funerals are extremely sad.

I myself, have been to way too many.

May he rest in peace.