02/27/2026
Tonight, we want to honor CBHLs Josh Hill, Janell Taylor, Angela Slater, Sam Rose, Lauren Thompson, Christy West, and their supervisor, Alex Gerry, Ozark Chaplains and the Missouri State Highway Patrol Defense Team for showing up for the Christian County Sheriff’s Office and standing beside our brothers and sisters in brown. What you do is more than a role. It is a calling rooted in compassion, courage, and selfless service. This week, you carried more than your responsibilities. You carried grief. You carried presence. You carried the emotional weight of a law enforcement family hurting, and you showed up fully, without hesitation.
Alex, your leadership made that possible. You created space for your team to stand in the gap when it mattered most. Your leadership reflects strength, trust, and deep care for both your team and the communities you serve.
Josh, Angela, and Janell, your kindness, steadiness, and willingness to be present in the hardest moments reflect the very heart of this work. You wore our boots for us. You stood beside deputies, families, and a community experiencing profound loss, and because of you, they were not alone.
Sam Rose, your presence this week was tremendous. You stepped into moments that required quiet strength and emotional endurance. You carried grief alongside those who were hurting and offered steady, compassionate support. You showed what it means to serve with both professionalism and heart, and your impact was deeply felt.
Christy West, we also want you to know how much you are appreciated. The support you provide and the care you show for your colleagues helps create the kind of team people can lean on. Every person who contributes to this work matters, and you are a valued and important part of that foundation.
Lauren Thompson, wow. You have always been someone who supports your colleagues without hesitation. You reach out. You make connections. You check in on the wellbeing of others because you genuinely care. That kind of humanity cannot be taught. It reflects who you are. Your commitment to supporting those around you strengthens not just individuals, but the entire system.
We also want to honor the Missouri State Highway Patrol DEFEND Team, whose presence reflects the strength of what it means to care for those who serve. You stood beside a grieving department and carried emotional weight with them, offering understanding, strength, and unwavering support.
And to the Ozark Chaplains, your work is sacred. You stand in spaces filled with heartbreak, bringing comfort, peace, and presence to families and deputies navigating unimaginable loss.
There are no words big enough for Deputy Gabriel Ramirez and Deputy Michael Hislope. They were more than heroes. They were more than peacekeepers. They were men who chose lives of service, who stood between danger and their community, and who carried responsibility most will never fully understand. Their loss is deeply human. It is families forever changed. It is brothers and sisters carrying their memory forward every single day. It is an irreplaceable sacrifice.
To their loved ones, your pain is seen. They were deeply loved, and their legacy will live on in the lives they protected and the people who knew them.
To their brothers and sisters in law enforcement, your grief is real and heavy. Yet you continue to show up. You continue to protect. You continue to serve. That is not because you are without pain, but because you are deeply human and deeply committed to one another.
Wow. What a great team of humans. Missouri is so blessed because of each of you. Your compassion, your presence, and your willingness to stand beside others in their darkest moments reflect the very best of service and humanity.
Deputy Ramirez and Deputy Hislope will always be carried. And so will the impact each of you made by showing up when it mattered most.
We will carry you, forever. 💙
