Like many in Okaloosa County, I won’t forget the tragic incident surrounding the death of Okaloosa Deputy Sheriff Bill Myers on this very date (September 22) in 2015.

• I had gotten the courage to somewhat launch this news operation called Get The Coast and this story surrounding Deputy Myers was one of the very first articles that I did at the time. 

Deputy Sheriff Bill Myers was shot and killed on an early Tuesday morning while serving a domestic violence injunction at a local attorney’s office on Plew Avenue, in Shalimar, at approximately 8:20 am.

Investigators said Myers had served the papers on the subject and a discussion regarding firearms confiscation ensued. The subject reportedly told Myers that the firearms were in his vehicle. As Deputy Myers was leaving the office, the man opened fire from behind, striking him multiple times in the back and the back of the head.

The man fled in his black truck to the Comfort Inn and Suites in Niceville where he barricaded himself in room 205 for approximately 90 minutes. The OCSO Special Response Team responded and evacuated the building to the KFC across the street, and proceeded to set up a perimeter. 

• The suspect was shot and killed by members of the Special Response Team after exiting the room displaying a firearm.

At a press conference that very afternoon, former Okaloosa Sheriff Larry Ashley said, “Deputy Myers has been a treasured part of this agency’s family since 1989.”

• “He served this community with distinction for decades. He was loved, admired, and respected for his dedication to the law enforcement profession,” said Sheriff Larry Ashley at the time. “He loved photography and he had an ability to make those around him smile, especially his young granddaughter who he adored and took to Disney World as often as he could. We pray for his soul and for his family and we ask that the community pray for them as well, and for all the men and women who have the courage in these troubled times to put their lives on the line for others.”

64-year-old Deputy Myers was a U.S. Air Force veteran and had served with the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office for a total of 26 years. He retired from the OCSO in November 2013 and had only recently rejoined the agency that January to serve civil papers part-time.

In 2018, the Shalimar Bridge on Eglin Parkway was memorialized as “Deputies Tony Forgione and Bill Myers Memorial Bridge.” There is a sign displayed near the bridge to honor them. 

• Forgione was a three-year veteran of the Okaloosa Sheriff’s Office. He was shot and killed while attempting to arrest a suspect who had escaped from custody while he was under going a mental evaluation at a local hospital.

Today, we remember Deputy Sheriff Bill Myers.