Loudon County deputy Brooke Slattery
Brooke Elizabeth Slattery will never, ever forget her first year as a patrol deputy at the Loudon County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO). And she’s only 24, in her fifth year there, a job she knew she wanted when she was only 4 years old.
Three things define 2024 for her – so far.
A couple in their 70s she’d known for 11 years, James “Chip” Ramsey, 78, and his wife, Betty, 75, were murdered at their Greenback home on March 30. She found their bodies the next day, on Easter Sunday. At first she didn’t recognize them because of their head and facial injuries.
Four months later she responded to what was her first wreck with a fatality. She comforted three children in the back of an ambulance. Soon after, the wife of the man who died in the accident drove to the scene on Highway 11 at Pond Road. Slattery held the woman’s hand, calmed her down through her distress and stayed with her after the official death notification.
On Friday, October 4, LCSO Sheriff Jimmy Davis presented her with his department’s first-ever Merit Award to recognize her exceptional performance and meritorious conduct at the fatal accident.
Let’s flash back to 2003 when she lived in Amarillo, Texas. Her parents constantly fought before and after they divorced. Her mom called the police, repeatedly. “The cops were my superheroes. I’d be sitting on the couch, scared to death, and they’d come in and be my safety blanket, hug me and I knew I was safe,” she shared. “That happened so much that I realized when I was just 4 that one day I wanted to be an officer in blue. Those experiences when I was young made me who I am today.”
And just who is this young deputy? “I have a really big heart and everyone will tell you that I meet no strangers. I can talk to a telephone pole and be friends with it in three minutes. I love people and working with them. It’s who I am.”
Her father’s drug-addicted life influenced her career. In and out of jails and prisons starting in 2014, she remembers her visits with him. They have no contact today. Her mother lives in Maryville, Tennessee, and they remain close.
Her stepfather, who worked for Bechtel Engineering, moved the family to Greenback in Loudon County in 2013. And her family is interesting, to say the least. Her brother, Mat Maxwell, is the bass player for country music star Luke Combs. He lives in Nashville as does their sister, Ashley, a hair stylist. Slattery has a half-brother, Joey, also in law enforcement, who lives in Pennsylvania.
Having lived in Greenback, she knew the community and its people well, including the Ramseys. She graduated from Greenback High School in 2018 and played soccer and wrestled with the boys’ team. The Ramsey’s grandson, Creed, was a good friend and classmate.
On Easter Sunday she was the LCSO Greenback patrol deputy. A woman walking a dog in front of the Ramseys’ home just off Highway 321 called Loudon County 911 and said it appeared a man was perhaps dead in his backyard garden, face down in the garden and not moving. When she arrived, she didn’t realize at first who lived there. After speaking to the woman, who turned out to be Chip Ramsey’s sister, she walked around the house and saw a man on the ground. “I didn’t recognize him at first because of his facial injuries,” she said. “It was horrible. So, I walked to their back door and could see a woman’s feet on the floor, heels up.”
About then fellow LCSO Deputy Luke Hawkins arrived. They went into the house, not knowing who could be inside. “It was Miss Betty on the floor dead. It was my first ever major shock,” she says. “Miss Betty worked at the Greenback Diner and we’d go there after school and always see her. I saw Chip at the football field watching Creed practice while I was at soccer practice. We had only one field so football was at one end and soccer at the other. He was a wonderful man with a big heart for everybody. Loved talking to him.”
Arrested and charged that same day with two counts of first-degree murder was Julian Goodrum, 53. The Ramseys befriended Goodrum years ago and he lived with them off and on when he was having health-related issues. Goodrum is now awaiting trial in the LCSO Corrections Facility. He had no bond set for either charge by Loudon County Judge Hank Sledge.
“That night after I was in bed, I had a panic attack. I got up and my heart was pounding, I could hardly see and all I could hear were muffled sounds,” the deputy says. “I was crying a lot and have had some nightmares since. Every so often it hits me. And when I’m in Greenback I visit their graves (as she did this past Saturday) and talk about soccer and football. It’s really hard still today that they’re gone.”
Her next major event was on Saturday, July 6, 2024, around 1 p.m. at the intersection of Highway 11 and Pond Road. The Tennessee Highway Patrol report says a 2007 Honda Civic, driven by Joshua Toledo, crossed the centerline and crashed head-on into a 2007 Honda Odyssey van with a family of five inside – a mom and dad with three children. The oldest child was 7, Slattery said, and she was injured. She was wearing a seat belt and the younger children were in child passenger restraint seats, all still buckled in when Slattery checked on them. Toledo was killed.
While emergency responders helped the injured parents, Slattery took the younger two children and walked them to the ambulance. “The 7-year-old was complaining of pain in her abdomen and was on a gurney in the ambulance,” Slattery said. “The EMTs wanted to give her an IV so I held her hand and started singing to her and the other kids and getting them to sing with me so the IV went great. I was the calm for her. I wanted them to feel safe. It was so scary for them and I was redirecting their attention.”
After both ambulances left for UT Medical Center, Slattery began working traffic and a car that would not stop at her signal drove directly to her and stopped. It was the victim’s wife, who had been told her husband was in a bad accident. “I reached in through the car window and grabbed her hand and told her to breathe, taking deep breaths. She asked me if her husband was OK and I couldn’t tell her,” Slattery said. “I radioed the THP troopers and told them the wife was asking about her husband. It was their place to tell her. After they told her he didn’t survive I stayed with her and tried to help. Her feelings of course were all over the place. I did my best to make her and her mother feel safe and loved.”
Her interactions with the children led Deputy Hawkins (who now works at the Loudon City Police Dept.) to nominate Slattery for the Merit Award. In his nomination letter, he referred to her “extraordinary compassion and competence in calming the children enabling emergency medical services personnel to provide necessary aid promptly and effectively.”
Hawkins added: “Her ability to connect with those children was amazing. She flipped the situation. It’s not normal for a child to be exposed to something like this with both parents badly injured. She calmed them down and distracted them. It was awesome to watch her work. She has a real gift. She really cares about everyone she comes across. It’s not just a job for her. It’s who she is. She is one exceptional officer. Loudon County is fortunate to have her.”
Tom King has been the editor of newspapers in Texas and California and also worked in Tennessee and Georgia. If you have someone you think we should consider featuring, please email him at the link with his name or text him at 865-659-3562.
