(Left to right) Darlington County Sheriff Tony Chavis, SCSA Deputy of the Year David Self, Darlington County Council Vice Chairman Lewis Brown. Photo by Samantha Lyles
By Samantha Lyles, Staff Writer, slyles@newsandpress.net
Earlier this summer, Darlington County Sheriff’s Office Deputy David Self was selected by the South Carolina Sheriff’s Association as 2019 Deputy of the Year. Last week, Darlington County Council passed a resolution honoring the officer and celebrating his outstanding work.
“I just want to say how proud I am of this young man, and that he’s a deputy in his home of Darlington County, serving the people,” says Sheriff Tony Chavis.
Self’s father served as a deputy, and he followed in the family tradition by joining the North Charleston Police Department.
From there, he applied to the DCSO and Chavis says he was happy to welcome Self to the department.
“I’m so glad we were able to bring him back home. His work is really speaking for itself,” says Chavis.
According to Resolution No. 707, there were three specific instances where Deputy Self went “above and beyond the call of duty” within the last year.
On November 24, 2018, Deputy Self responded to an auto accident which left a mother and two small children trapped in an overturned vehicle. Arriving first at the scene, Self crawled into the vehicle and freed the children – one of whom was dangling upside down from a still-attached car seat – and took them to safety. He then returned to rescue the mother and reunite the family a safe distance away from the vehicle.
“There’s no class at the academy that teaches you to rush toward a vehicle that’s been turned upside down, to crawl into that car and rescue people… that’s not the normal course of duty. It’s more than we normally ask or expect from our first responders,” says Chavis.
On January 22, 2019, Self was dispatched to help search for a missing puppy. The puppy had been missing for three days and the distraught family reached out to law enforcement to assist them in their search. Upon learning that the pup had fallen down a 15-foot well, Self proceeded to effect a rescue operation: he climbed down into the hole, tucked the little dog into his vest carrier, and climbed back out to reunite the family with their missing pet.
Sheriff Chavis, an animal lover himself, says he was moved to give the deputy a hug for saving the pup. He also notes that when he asked several other officers if they would have descended into that deep, dark well to save a dog, there was a fair bit of hemming and hawing.
“Even though it’s not a human being, that dog is an important part of someone’s life, and he went the extra mile to make sure that family got their pet back safely,” says Chavis.
Finally, on January 29, 2019, Deputy Self responded to a call of a person suffering a heroin overdose. Arriving ahead of EMS, Self found the victim unresponsive and without a pulse. He administered an injection of NARCAN and performed CPR for several minutes, eventually reviving the individual to a breathing and responsive state. The resolution states that “Deputy Self’s quick action and proper use of his resources and training saved a life.”
Sheriff Chavis says that in response to the nationwide opioid epidemic, he had all DCSO officers trained to use NARCAN, just in case they ever encountered a deadly overdose.
Self’s usage of NARCAN was the first time a DCSO officer has deployed the reviving agent, and Chavis is very proud that his deputy’s training showed through in his job performance.
“It’s got to make you proud, as a resident of the county, to know you’ve got people out there doing everything they can (for you), and making sure they do their job the right way,” says Chavis.
