Staff Reports

    Fourteen law enforcement officials reconvened at the Red Roof Inn’s room 206 last Friday to recreate their position moments before David Allen Deitz, 25, allegedly opened fire through the room’s window and door.
    GSP Trooper Tracy English, who along with Trooper Alex Starling and Trooper Brad Walker and Cadet Steven Stone were one of the first law enforcement officers at the scene, shook his head after recreating the scene. In total, 13 officers were outside the room, one on the ground below the second story window. When the shots were first fired on Sunday, January 4, several officers were directly in the line of fire.
    “I guess God was looking out for us,” English said.
    Walker and Stone first identified Deitz’s stolen Ford at the motel. Moments later, after they alerted English and Starling, officers from more than five agencies, including the FBI, descended on the room.
    The GSP troopers were responding to an AMBER alert issued out of South Carolina warning that Deitz may have possibly kidnapped a woman and her seven–month–old child.
    After a 13 hour stand off Deitz and 17–year–old Jamie Lynn Burgess were arrested and the mother and child were released unharmed.