Deputy Sheriff Donald Ray Hayes

Donald Ray Hayes

Deputy Sheriff Donald Hayes succumbed to a gunshot wound received the previous day while serving an arrest warrant for simple assault.

Deputy Hayes and two other deputies went to the suspect's home to make the arrest. The other two deputies went to the front of the home and Deputy Hayes went to cover the rear of the home because the suspect was known to run from the police. As Deputy Hayes came around the back of the house the suspect leaned out of a window and opened fire with a shotgun from four feet away.

The suspect fled the scene but was arrested the following day. The 34-year-old man was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison with no parole. As of 2021 he was in Turbeville Prison.

Deputy Hayes was survived by his wife and three children.