There’s the gore to consider. Dismemberments and decapitations, not to mention the overdoses and stabbings and sexual assaults and the child abuse cases.
When just one of those scenarios touches any normal person’s life, it’s the worst day imaginable, but for a member of law enforcement in the Upper Ohio Valley? Any day, maybe most days on duty.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s out in the county, in the city of Wheeling, or in the area, and that’s because at any moment you really don’t know what you are going to encounter when responding,” said Ohio County Chief Deputy John Schultz. “It could be something along the interstates, out in a rural area, or in a city, and you really don’t know what it’s going to involve. For example, most folks think a domestic is just two people in an argument, but those situations can get very dangerous very quickly for an officer or deputy.
“When it comes to a domestic call, you don’t know, who’s armed, where they may be hiding a weapon, or who really caused the issue,” the 26-year first responder said. “I’ve been in situations where the husband and wife are fighting and when we go to take him away, she turns on us for taking him away.”
The administration of Narcan on an individual whose face is blue, the blood of a child, the tears of an addict all stick with a person, but not because of repetition.
“This job really takes a toll on your psyche; it really does. Things you see sometimes during a law enforcement career are really horrendous, and they involve situations that most people never get to see during their lifetimes,” Schultz admitted. “The homicides, the suicides that involve the use of a weapon, and the tragic car accidents involving fatalities — those things leave an imprint in your mind.
“In this line of work, you really do have to have a good family structure, and that’s helped me tremendously,” he said. “The officers and deputies also check on each other after those kinds of incidents, and we also have access to counselors. It definitely wears on you; that’s for sure.”
275 Times
In 1999, not too long after Schultz became a member of the Wheeling Police Department, there was a trespassing call from a hotel along National Road in Wheeling. The people would not react to attempts for interaction with employees, so the manager called the cops.
If those employees only knew.
“I responded to a call at the Hampton Inn on National Road because the occupant of the room was late in leaving the room, and I thought I was going to have to wake the people up or something,” Schultz recalled. “But it turned out to be the first homicide call I ever had to answer. The man inside had barricaded the door, and after about 40 minutes of trying to persuade the man to let us in, we had to force entry.
“When I went in, I found a subject who was on the floor reaching for something from under the bed, and then he pulled a knife on me, and I had to disarm him,” the chief deputy recalled. “A struggled took place, and then he smacked me in the face with a platter of cocaine. Quickly after that, we got control of him and placed him under arrest.”
Yassar Abdelhag and his girlfriend, 25-year-old Dana Tozer, were reportedly vacationing in Wheeling, but then they attracted attention. Schultz was joined by members of other agencies, and after cuffing Abdellhag, the officers went to the bathroom.
“That’s when we found out just how tragic that homicide was,” Schultz explained. “We discovered a woman on the floor of the bathroom, and it was apparent he was trying to dress her to get her body out of there.
“That woman was a paraplegic and unable to defend herself against the man, and she had been stabbed 275 times,” he said. “When you find something like that, it stays with you for a very long time.”
The Career Continues
Schultz was a member of the Wheeling Police Department for more than 21 years, including 15 years on the streets and six serving as a Prevention Resource Officer at Wheeling Middle School. Before his retirement to become one of two chief deputies under Ohio County Sheriff Tom Howard, Schultz was honored with the Top Cop Award twice, was the state’s Prevention Officer of the Year three times, and he and Howard have had the opportunities to speak nationally about the importance of the interaction between young people and law enforcement.
Schultz, like a lot of officers, troopers, and deputies, has saved people from nightmarish situations, and at times from death. Schultz, an avid swimmer who still is certified to teach and train lifeguards, has pulled 13 people from deadly waters.
“I’ve just been fortunate to be in those situations where someone was in trouble, and I knew how to react,” he said humbly. “It’s one way to make a friend for life; I can tell you that.”
Over the past quarter-century a number of technological advances and scientific discoveries have taken place, but in Schultz’s opinion, crime has remained crime when it comes to law enforcement in the Upper Ohio Valley.
“The type of crime on the street hasn’t changed one bit since I first started with the Wheeling PD. We’ve always had drug problems and domestics around here, but the advances in technology have helped us with some of the things we have to do. One thing that hasn’t changed is the core of police work.
“When I first started, crack was very prevalent in the city, and so was marijuana, but then the prescription pills and heroin arrived, and those drugs have taken a lot of lives,” he said. “These days, we seem to have them all here, and that includes meth. And it’s bad, and I hope people realize that.”
