Dallas County Chief Deputy John Hatfield was given a special award for bravery from the Dallas County Commission on Monday in recognition of his actions to subdue a man who was on a shooting spree across the county in March.
On March 19, Hatfield got a scary call from his daughter Kelsey who lived near him off County Road 219 saying she was watching a man beat an elderly woman.
“Daddy, he’s killing her in the front yard,” she said.
Without his bullet-proof vest, off-duty Hatfield rushed to the scene.
“I was thinking he is hurting my child,” he said at the commission meeting.
He got there and confronted the man, later identified as Lorenzo Edwards.
“The first thing he does is pull two weapons on me,” Hatfield said.
Sheriff Mike Granthum said “these guns were fully loaded,” which concerned law enforcement that Edwards intended on continuing his shooting spree that started earlier that night when he allegedly shot his wife and 14-year-old son at their home in the 2800 block of Summerfield Road within Selma city limits.
Law enforcement reports he drove from there to the 900 block of Highway 219 in the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department jurisdiction, where this elderly woman was killed while on the phone with 911.
Standing in front of Edwards, Hatfield told him to drop the guns, “and he cussed me out.”
“Then I convinced him to drop the guns, and we’re both here today,” he said.
Edwards was arrested and charged with one count of murder, two counts of attempted murder and two counts of first-degree domestic violence. His wife and son were treated for gunshot injuries but survived.
“I don’t deserve recognition,” Hatfield said Monday night. “I did what I was trained to do. My daughter saved lives that night. My team saved lives that night.”
Hatfield said, “the most important thing we need to understand – we also lost a life that night,” referring to the elderly woman who was shot and then beaten with an engine block police say Edwards retrieved from the trunk of his car.
Probate Judge and Dallas County Commission Chairman Jimmy Nunn read the award aloud to everyone in the commission room. He then presented it to Hatfield thanking him for his bravery.
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