Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Jerrid Hobbie received the Trooper of the Year for Valor award last week for his heroic efforts in saving the life of Bryan County Sheriff’s Deputy Austin Murray who had been shot during a gunfight last year.
Hobbie is stationed at Troop E in Durant and assigned to Bryan County.
Hobbie said that Murray was first on the scene of a domestic violence incident near Hendrix on Aug. 11, 2024, when a man used his vehicle to ram a car occupied by his wife and children.
“That car erupted into flames and then he was attempting to kidnap his wife and kids at gunpoint,” Hobbie said.
When Murray arrived, he got into a scuffle with the suspect and a gunfight ensued with both Murray and the suspect getting shot.
“Deputy Murray did an amazing job of staying in the gunfight, keeping the guy at bay, but as he was retreating back to the ditch, that was when I rolled up,” Hobbie said.
Hobbie exited his patrol car and he saw that Murray was face down at the time.
“I yelled at him to see what we had and that was when he stood, kind of raised up and presented his pistol towards the white truck and I could see the blood all over him and he began shouting that he’d been shot and there was a suspect with a gun behind the vehicle,” Hobbie said.
Hobbie then got on the radio to contact dispatch and let them know this was a shotsfi red call.
“I deploy my rifle, go to the back of my patrol vehicle and start searching for the suspect,” Hobbie said. “I located him. He was yelling at Murray for some reason. I don’t really understand why. He was yelling at Murray, so I gave him verbal commands. Due to his level of intoxication and the fact that he had suffered a gunshot wound, he complied, just wasn’t 100 percent compliance. He was kind of argumentative and didn’t obey my commands exactly but he did comply and I got him out on a felony stop which is where we put them out in the middle of the highway and hold cover on them until somebody can move up to arrest them.”
Deputy Dustin Watson then arrived and covered the suspect until Hobbie placed him in handcuffs.
Hobbie then provided first aid to Murray.
“Murray did an excellent job of applying his own tourniquet and rendering aid to himself the best that he could,” Hobbie said. “He still was bleeding. He had a gunshot wound to his right thigh, his thumb had been struck and then he had one in his upper glute and so I went over there with my medical kit and began working on him. I packed his gunshot wound in his thigh with QuikClot and then noticed that blood was pooling above where his tourniquet was applied. So, I removed that back pocket area, I cut that out and that is when I saw his glute had a large gunshot wound through it. I applied QuikClot to that.”
Murray also had been shot in the thumb and Hobbie, along with Watson, wrapped that wound and medical personnel then arrived. Hobbie and Watson also rendered aid to the suspect who had been shot in the abdomen.
Hobbie credited the emergency first-aid training he received through OHP. He took a Stop the Bleed course in 2023 and the following day, he enrolled in an instructor course and has since been teaching Stop the Bleed. He credited this with giving him confidence while treating Murray’s wounds.
“This is actually something that I felt very confident in doing because of the training I received through the highway patrol and it’s something that I got to go teach and and then this was the ultimate test of the skills,” Hobbie said. “So, it was very nice to be able to put those skills to use.”
Murray credited Hobbie with saving his life. They are among law enforcement offi cers who exercise together at Nautilus Gym. Hobbie said that Murray told him that while in the ditch injured, he did not know who was coming to help and that he could hear sirens while waiting to see who would arrive.
“When he looked over and saw that door map, Oklahoma Highway Patrol, and then he saw me step out and recognized me, he knew he was going home,” Hobbie said. “The awards and everything, they’re amazing and I’m very appreciative of it, but I don’t think any trooper, deputy or officer does this job for awards. But, to have your fellow co-workers on the road, not just in my agency but in the agencies that I work with have that level of confidence and faith in your ability, I couldn’t ask for anything more. That means the world to me.”
Hobbie is a Southeastern graduate and he joined OHP in 2021. He said becoming a law enforcement officer was something that he always wanted to do.
Troop E Commander Capt. Scott Hampton is pleased to see that Trooper Hobbie has been honored.
“Every day, they go out and do great things and it’s wonderful for them to get recognized when they go above and beyond like this incident,” Hampton said.
Hampton spoke of the intensive tactical combat medical training that all troopers receive.
“Secondly, is just having the mindset and the forethought to hear those calls out and respond and just be in the right place at the right time,” Hampton said. “So, a lot of this can be attributed to just having the drive to go and say, ‘Hey, There’s a bad call going out and I need to respond to that to back my partners up,’ and our partners are everyone. They’re the police department, the county, tribal. So, I’m very proud of our troopers that take the initiative and go out and do those things.
“I’m just very proud of him and glad he’s getting recognized.”
