Ashland Remembers Detective Sergeant Glenn Sturgill 44 Years After Line-of-Duty Death
ASHLAND, Ohio — Forty-four years ago today, the Ashland community lost a devoted law enforcement officer, husband and father when Ashland County Sheriff’s Detective Sergeant Glenn Sturgill was killed in the line of duty.
Sturgill died on Aug. 2, 1982, his 30th birthday, while attempting to apprehend three suspects following an armed robbery attempt in Ashland.
He had served with the Ashland County Sheriff’s Office for six years.
During the evening hours, Sturgill was conducting surveillance in an unmarked vehicle when he noticed three suspicious men near the former Fisher Big Wheel store in the 1600 block of Claremont Avenue.
The suspects, David Mullins, 21; Carl Dean Davis, 25; and a juvenile, had reportedly planned for two days to rob someone, steal a vehicle and return to Kentucky.
Armed with a sawed-off shotgun loaded with deer slugs, the suspects approached a woman in the store’s parking lot and demanded her car. The woman dropped a large glass jug she was carrying and fainted.
After witnessing the attempted robbery, Sturgill left his vehicle and pursued the fleeing suspects across Claremont Avenue and into a cornfield behind the McDonald’s restaurant.
Investigators determined that Sturgill apprehended one of the suspects. Unknown to him, another was hiding near a trash dumpster with the shotgun.
A single shot struck Sturgill in his lower right side. The rifled slug traveled upward and struck his heart, killing him instantly. He fell backward into the cornfield.
Within eight hours, all three suspects had been located and taken into custody.
Mullins, identified as the shooter, was convicted of murder and robbery and sentenced to life in prison. Davis was sentenced in January 1983 to between 14 and 50 years for involuntary manslaughter and complicity to aggravated robbery. The juvenile was charged in connection with the robbery.
Mullins and Davis later received additional prison sentences after attempting to escape in 1984.
Sturgill left behind his wife, Becky, and their two children.
“My husband, Detective Sgt. Glenn Sturgill, was doing what was right,” Becky Sturgill previously said. “He was doing his job protecting and serving.”
For his son, Timothy Sturgill, the loss meant a lifetime of milestones without his father.
“On my dad’s birthday, which happens to be his End of Watch as well, I have to see my father at his grave,” Timothy previously said. “I talk to a stone and get no response.”
“I missed out on hunting and fishing trips, countless birthdays, holidays and memories,” he continued. “He wasn’t at my graduation or my wedding.”
The Sturgill family and supporters have previously organized petition drives opposing the release of those convicted in connection with Sergeant Glenn Sturgill death.
More than four decades later, Sturgill’s name and sacrifice remain permanently woven into the Ashland community.
The Command Center at the Ashland County Fairgrounds was dedicated in part to his memory, while the main driveway at the Ashland County Justice Complex was named Sturgill Drive in his honor.
Those memorials serve as lasting reminders of a young officer who placed himself in danger to protect an innocent woman and the community he had sworn to serve.
Today, Ashland County remembers Detective Sergeant Glenn Sturgill, not only for how he died, but for how he lived: as a husband, father and public servant who gave everything in the performance of his duty.
End of Watch: Aug. 2, 1982
Age: 30
Years of service: Six
Survived by: His wife, Becky, and two children
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” — John 15:13
