He had his loaded .38 pushed hard into his sternum. It was cocked and his thumb was on the trigger. Suicide was his plan, sitting on the back porch of his father-in-law’s Blount County home. He felt like a failure. “I’ve let my wife and my family down,” he kept saying. “They’ll be better off with me gone. They’ll have my pension and insurance.”
He needed an angel. Someone to reach him. To save his life.
Darin Gallow
The father-in-law had called 911 around 2 p.m. on Friday, May 21, 2021. The angel responded – Blount County Sheriff’s Office Cpl. Darin Gallow, whose middle name is Gabriel, a Biblical archangel. A coincidence? Maybe not.
Gallow arrived around 2:30. He walked across the backyard. The man saw him. He began talking to the man, introducing himself, and walked to the bottom of the steps leading to the porch and the man told him that was far enough. “I was maybe about 10 feet from him,” Gallow said.
Gallow, 56, remained on those steps for three hours, earning the next step up about every 30 minutes until he was on the porch, within three feet of this troubled man and his .38. Throughout, the man never lowered the gun, never pointed it at Gallow, a Marine for 13 years who has also spent 28 years in the Air Force National Guard. This man also is an Air Force veteran. That was part of the bond built between them during this long counseling session – veteran to veteran.
The eight-year Sheriff’s Office veteran says: “I got him talking to me and I stayed calm and wanted him to be calm too. I couldn’t appear to be nervous and get him excited. He kept saying that killing himself was the end all be all. I told him this was not going to be good for his wife and family, that every time she comes to visit her dad, she’ll be remembering this.”
Gallow says he was not alone. “God guided my words and my thought process and helped me stay calm and not say or do anything that would send him off the deep end to pull that trigger,” Gallow said.
The man kept telling Gallow that the VA had let him down, his unemployment was messed up and he was out of money for his family and a failure. “I told him taking his life would just make it harder on his wife. That this is not the answer for him or for her.”
Gallow told him that we all make mistakes in life and that life teaches us how to live it. “I kept on telling him he could fix those mistakes.”
Gallow finally reached the porch and was within an arm’s length of him and the .38. He wanted water and Gallow provided that. He wanted a cigarette. Gallow does not smoke, but keeps them in his cruiser when people are stressed and ask for a smoke.
The smoke calmed him down, but the thumb remained on the trigger.
“That’s when I told him that I wanted us to walk away from this together. That I would take him to the hospital for some help, no handcuffs, in my car. He uncocked the hammer and handed the gun to me butt first. That’s when he started to cry. He said to me: ‘Do you promise to help me?’ Absolutely, no one else here will touch you. Then he gave me a hug.”
Gallow drove him to Blount Memorial Hospital and remained there until another deputy brought the man’s wife to the hospital.
The man is now out of state as he receives treatment. The VA issue has been solved. “He called me last Sunday (June 27) and thanked me again and told me that life is great and all is well and he has a new lease on life. That means a lot to me.”
The department awarded Gallow with its Lifesaving Commendation and named him the agency’s co-employee of the month for his heroics.
An angel and hero make a powerful team!
Tom King writes Our Town Heroes each Monday. Suggest future stories for him at tking535@gmail.com or call him at 865-659-3562.