Booking deputy earns national Valor award for removing handgun from new inmate
American Jail Association President Shawn Klucznik presented the award to Elliott Tuesday during the annual AJA Conference and Jail Expo in Fort Worth, Texas.
AJA gives this coveted award to an individual who demonstrated unusual judgment, zeal, bravery, and/or ingenuity that averted or minimized a potential disaster.
While initiating the booking process on the inmate, Elliot noticed a handgun in the inmate's clothing. Without regard for his personal safety, he gained control of the firearm without any injuries.
The handgun was loaded with 11 rounds.
'He had a gun and could have shot anybody,' Elliott said. 'I didn't want that to happen. Anybody else in booking would have done the same thing.'
Tennessee Corrections Institute Board Chairman Sheriff Mike Fitzhugh commended Elliott.
'We are extremely proud of Deputy Elliott for his quick action to avoid a potential disaster in our facility,' Fitzhugh said. 'He is very deserving of this recognition.'
Jail Administrator Kevin Henderson said the detention staff appreciates having a deputy on the team like Elliott.
'To see something wrong, respond and put your own safety at risk showed tremendous courage and the will to do a great job,' Henderson said. 'Who knows how many lives he saved due to his actions with total disregard for his own life? His actions were heroic.'
Besides locating the handgun, Elliott also recovered a knife from an inmate in October 2023. The arrestee was belligerent and noncompliant with officers.
AJA reported Elliott's persistence and dedication to safety and security while serving as a Booking Officer has been a point of inspiration for other staff members and exemplifies the innate bravery required of corrections officers every day across the nation.
This article originally appeared on Murfreesboro Daily News Journal: Booking deputy earns Valor award for removing handgun from inmate
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Alleged victim shares story amid potential surrogacy scam
A woman is sharing her story amid an investigation into whether a California couple misled surrogate mothers across the country. In January 2024, Kayla Elliott was contacted by Mark Surrogacy via a Facebook group. Public filings reveal March Surrogacy Investment LLC was registered to Guojun Xuan and Silvia Zhang's home address in Arcadia, California, with Zhang listed as the manager. Elliott was sent a "parent profile" that said a couple was seeking surrogacy because they had one daughter but were unable to conceive again after 10 attempts. But the couple turned out to be part of an alleged surrogacy scam that investigators say involved people from around the country carrying embryos for the couple at the same time. "It was kind of like they preyed on my vulnerability, being a first-time surrogate," Elliott said. Elliott, who has four kids of her own, said she gave birth as a surrogate in March and that the baby is now in foster care. She's fighting to gain custody of the child. She said she's been contacted by the FBI. The bureau's Los Angeles field office declined to comment to CBS News. "We were lied to about so much, that I mean it's disgusting," Elliott said. Investigation details Xuan and Zhang were arrested in May on felony child endangerment charges in connection to a possible child abuse incident involving a 2-month-old baby. They were released on bond as the investigation expanded. Police say security video from Xuan and Zhang's property showed a nanny shaking and hitting the baby. The child was admitted to a hospital with severe head trauma. "Upon reviewing the footage, detectives observed that a nanny employed by the child's parents violently shook and struck the infant on May 5, 2025, resulting in the child losing consciousness," the Arcadia Police Department said in a news release. Police issued an arrest warrant for the nanny, Chunmei Li, who remains on the run. According to police, 21 children are in protective care;15 of whom were taken from the mansion in Southern California including the 2-month old baby. CBS News was at the property on Thursday when someone emerged from the mansion to pick up a package. The individual was on the phone with Zhang, who said, "this home is good. There's no human trafficking." Arcadia police say they haven't spoken to any surrogate mothers as that doesn't pertain to the child abuse investigation. The couple hasn't entered a plea yet or responded to a request for comment from CBS News Los Angeles. Wall Street Journal reports Trump sent "bawdy" birthday letter to Epstein, Trump threatens to sue 7.3 magnitude earthquake hits southern Alaska Medical expert on Trump's chronic venous insufficiency diagnosis Solve the daily Crossword
Los Angeles Times
4 days ago
- Los Angeles Times
21 children removed from Arcadia home after couple accused of tricking women into surrogacy
Surrogate mothers who gave birth to children for an Arcadia couple are looking for answers after the pair were recently accused of neglect and 21 children and babies were removed from their home. On May 7, Arcadia Police Department officers responded to a local hospital for a report of a 2-month-old child with significant head trauma, according to Arcadia Police Department Lt. Kollin Cieadlo. Officers confirmed that the child had apparently been shaken, dropped or went through a traumatic incident. Detectives responded to a home in the 600 block of West Camino Real Avenue and discovered there were 15 other children inside the residence, Cieadlo said. Police wrote a search warrant for surveillance footage, hard drives and phone records from the home and identified the nanny, 56-year-old Chunmei Li, as the suspect in the child abuse. Officials said they also corroborated that the parents, 65-year-old Guojun Xuan and 38-year-old Silvia Zhang, allegedly knew the child was injured and did nothing for two days. Two days later, Zhang and Xuan were arrested on suspicion of felony child endangerment and neglect and their children were taken into protective custody, police said. The nanny, Li, wasn't at the home and is still outstanding. Six other children who were temporarily away from the home at the time have since been taken into protective custody by Department of Children and Family Services and placed into foster care. The 21 children, some who were born through surrogacy, range from 2 months to 13 years old, with the majority of them being between 1 to 3 years old, Cieadlo said. The case was deferred by the district attorney for further investigation and the couple was released without any charges being filed. In an interview with Bioethics and Culture, a networking group that focuses on ethics in biotechnology, Kayla Elliot said she met the couple when she was done having children of her own but wanted to help others grow their family. The Texas mother of four said she first posted on Facebook about wanting to become a surrogate and that Mark Agency, the surrogacy company she used, reached out to her through social media. She said that she knows now that that should've been the first red flag. Elliott agreed to become a surrogate for a Chinese couple, and was told the child was conceived with the father's sperm and a donor egg. She underwent an embryo transfer at Western Fertility Institute in Encino last year. During the transfer, Elliott was supposed to meet the couple in-person for the first time. Only the father was present and Elliott was told the mother had a stomach bug and didn't want to get her sick. 'Now we know that that was the same situation told to many other women that also used them,' she told the interviewer. 'It was some type of a lie.' When Elliott was 17 weeks pregnant, she was scrolling Facebook and looking through surrogacy agency reviews. Elliott saw the Mark Agency and saw they were all negative. One woman in particular urged people not to use the agency. 'She was basically saying that we've heard stories that women have said they're using these parents and these parents have multiple women pregnant at the same time for the same family,' she said. 'And it's not disclosed ahead of time.' Through Facebook comments, Elliott found two other women who were carrying babies for the same Chinese couple that she was. Elliott immediately reached out to her lawyer, who contacted the surrogacy agency's lawyer. Elliott was told that because the father was much older than the mother and their mentality was that they wanted to have as much children as they could before he got way too old. 'It's all B.S.,' Elliot added. Elliott said that through her pregnancy, she had very minimal contact with the intended parents, which was another red flag. Elliott induced labor and still didn't heard from the intended mother. Eventually, she heard from the surrogate agency, which asked if there was a closer airport to the hospital because the mother was having a difficult time getting there. The intended mother eventually arrived six hours after the baby was born. Elliott said on discharge day, the mother wasn't holding the baby, which she thought was strange. 'You would just think somebody who wanted a baby so bad would be holding the baby or loving on the baby but she barely even looked at her,' Elliott said. 'It was weird.' The woman handed Elliott $2,000 and thanked her for giving birth. Since then, Elliott has launched a GoFundMe campaign for legal fees to try to get legal custody of the child she delivered who is now in foster care. 'I'm reaching out with a heartfelt request for support as I seek legal placement of the baby girl I delivered as a surrogate,' she wrote. 'Due to unexpected circumstances, babygirl, along with many others, have been placed in foster care.' 'This little one deserves stability, love, and a safe home. I am prepared and deeply committed to providing that for her, but the legal process to secure placement is complex and costly.'
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Yahoo
South Korea wins UK appeal over arbitration ruling in Samsung merger case
LONDON (Reuters) -South Korea on Thursday won its latest appeal in its dispute with U.S. hedge fund Elliott over the 2015 merger of two affiliates of Samsung, shortly after the electronics group's Chairman Jay Y. Lee was cleared by South Korea's top court. The South Korean government was ordered to pay Elliott around $100 million by the Netherlands-based Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2023. Elliott had sued over the role played by South Korea's National Pension Service in approving the $8 billion merger between Samsung C&T, in which Elliott was a minority stakeholder, and Cheil Industries. South Korea sought to challenge the tribunal's decision at London's High Court, arguing the tribunal did not have jurisdiction under a free trade agreement with the U.S., but its case was rejected last year. The Court of Appeal, however, allowed South Korea's appeal and sent the case back to the High Court, to decide the challenge to the arbitration tribunal's jurisdiction. Its ruling came hours after Lee was ultimately cleared of accounting fraud and stock manipulation over the 2015 merger between Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries. South Korea's Supreme Court upheld the dismissal of prosecutors' appeal against a Seoul court's 2024 decision to clear Lee, removing a long-running legal risk for the head of the country's biggest company Samsung Electronics. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
