S.C. officer shot in head by suspect thanks public for support after receiving LE award

By Lyn Riddle
The State

OCONEE COUNTY, S.C. — Oconee County Sheriff’s Office has released a tribute video for Deputy Lucas Watts, who was shot in the head during a traffic stop last November and named Deputy of The Year earlier this month.

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Watts makes his first public statement at the end.

“Thank you all for what you’ve done for me,” Watts said. “It means a lot.”

Deputy of the Year is given by the South Carolina Sheriffs’ Association.

Oconee County Sheriff Mike Crenshaw nominated Watts for the award. The video included Crenshaw, who said he had known Watts since he was a little boy, Watts’ brother Logan, Pastor of Earles Grove Baptist Church James Dyar and numerous officers talking about what a great officer he was, calling him a “cop’s cop.”

Often, Watts would do something exceptional and never tell anyone about it, Tommy Compton, Watts’ former supervisor said.

Watts was not able to attend the association’s banquet in Myrtle Beach. His brother, an officer with the State Law Enforcement Division, accepted the award for him.

Last November, Crenshaw recounted the scene when Watts was all but dead during a church service at First Baptist Church Westminster. Watts was at Prisma Health Greenville Memorial Hospital, but when his wife Haley came in and touched him, he moved as a tear rolled down his cheek.

He was rushed into surgery and survived. Crenshaw described it as a dead man coming back to life and credited prayer.

Watts returned home in May after 189 days in the hospital and in rehab.

Gregory Wayne Maxwell, 50, was charged with five counts of attempted murder and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime.

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