(From 25 News) – Fulton County Deputy Troy Chisum was honored Friday night in Canton at a softball game where one of his daughters took the field surrounded by family, friends, and complete strangers, all to honor her father.
Chisum was fatally shot Tuesday as he responded to a battery and disturbance call at a residence in Avon.
“Troy was a great family man, three daughters that are now going to grow up without a father. I mean that’s unfair to all of them,” said Fulton County Sheriff Jeff Standard.
The loss of Chisum was felt across the softball diamond as hundreds of law enforcement members from all over the state took the field with his family during a memorial service prior to the game.
“It’s terrible anytime we lose an officer,” said Shannon Pilkington, deputy chief of administration services for the Quincy Police Department. “Terrible especially this close. It’s a hour and a half, two hours, from Quincy and you think it doesn’t happen around here but it does.”
Standard said his department is raw, and will never be the same, but they will remain strong for the Chisum’s.
“Tonight’s not about us. Tonight is about a little girl who lost her father tragically, I don’t know how they’re going to survive,” Standard said.
When the other team heard about who they were playing they came together to have shirts made to honor the fallen hero, one of their coaches felt the girls knew it was about much more than a softball game.
“Softball, or any sport for that matter, is not just a game. There are people involved and families involved and when you hear of a tragedy such as this it teaches the girls, it’s a life lesson that sports is a unifying thing and we are going to unify together for the Chisum family tonight,” assistant coach Aaron Smith said.
The sight of Chisum’s daughter, wearing blue socks, hit too close to home for many, including Pilkington, whose own daughter will play in the same tournament Saturday, full of emotion, like the many who protect and serve.
