Fallen Deputy Remembered

“This is going to be a big loss for the community. Dave was very very much respected and well-liked throughout the community. He was born and raised here,” said Sheriff Dick Rodgers on Monday evening.

Deputy Dave Grant died after being critically injured in a car wreck while responding to Monday´s plane crash near Columbia.

A report from the California Highway Patrol says Grant had tried to avoid a truck that had started to turn in front of him, northbound on Highway 49 near Parrotts Ferry Road.

The deputy´s patrol car scraped the front bumper of the turning pickup, then went off the west side of the roadway, and struck a tree on the west shoulder of the highway.

Grant was a 28-year veteran of law enforcement, and had been with the Tuolumne County Sheriff´s Department for fifteen of those years.

“He gives you his best. He enjoyed his job immensely. He was doing a profession which he absolutely loved. And he´s the guy, if you ever needed help, he´s the one you wanted responding,” said Sheriff Rodgers at the Sheriff´s Department office.

Sheriff Rodgers says it´s been 37 years since the Tuolumne County Sheriff´s Department lost a deputy in the line of duty.

Deputy Dave Grant was 46 years old.

He enjoyed his job immensely. He was doing a profession which he absolutely loved.