Deputy Will May, Others Remembered at Law Enforcement Ceremony

Two hundred people gathered at the Law Enforcement Memorial on Northwest Florida State College to remember the 19 men and women who have died in Okaloosa and Walton Counties in the line of duty since 1929 – and to hear from the widow of Deputy Will May – who was killed on April 2, 2025, as he escorted a man out of the Dollar General in Mossy Head.

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The pageantry of men and women in their law enforcement uniforms marked the solemnity of the occasion – the outside world pierced the veil of the ceremony through sound – as the ping of a metal baseball bat or a distant pair of jet engines reminded the supporters of the ceremony of the world outside the alcove set aside for them.

Firefighters ringed the back of the group – and behind them, a huge American flag suspended by metal cable hung off the back of Niceville Fire Department’s ladder truck.

Arrayed in their formal uniforms, the first responders, their families, and friends listened to the stories of each of the men and women who died in the service of Okaloosa and Walton residents.

At the front, Deputy May’s family sat feet away from Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden and Former County Commissioner Graham Fountain as the first deaths were read out.

Okaloosa County and Walton County lost their first law enforcement officers on the same day – August 17, 1929. Sheriff John Monroe Summerlin was killed by an onrushing train when it hit his car and killed four of its five passengers. To the east, on the same day, Deputy Sheriff Thomas G. Blount was shot and killed when he raided an illegal moonshine still.