Officer saves boy from dog attack

Morgantowns Giles Taylor

By Alicia Carmichael, acarmichael@bgdailynews.com — 270-783-3234

Monday, June 14, 2004

MORGANTOWN When a loose chow dog bit 7-year-old Jareth Burchett in the face early June 4, Morgantown Police Officer Giles Taylor instinctively reached in to pull the dog off. Then, the animal turned on Taylor. It mangled his right hand, but let Jareth go. Taylor, 35, shot and killed the dog. Hes a wonderful person, I tell you that, said Jareths mother, Deborah Combs, who had called the police just minutes before the attack to see if an officer could come to her home and do something with the dog that had also tried to attack the man who was then her boyfriend. I told him as far as I was concerned, he was my hero, Combs said. Jareth wasnt badly hurt in the attack. The skin on his face wasnt even broken, though he did get a puncture wound on one hand. Taylor wasnt quite so lucky. After taking the dead dog to the Butler County Health Department so it could undergo a rabies test which turned out negative he had to have surgery to put pins in his right hand at The Medical Center at Bowling Green. Now, Jareth thinks a lot of Taylor, who is on leave from his job for three months. Hes nice, he said Wednesday. But Taylor, who luckily uses his left hand to shoot, said he was just doing his job when he helped Jareth. I dont think I did anything anyone else wouldnt have done, he said. Growing up in rural Butler County, on a farm where he and his mother, Linda Phelps, lived with her parents, Bina Givens and the now late R.C. Babe Givens, Taylor never thought hed be a policeman. I was always interested in archaeology and arrow hunting, he said. Taylor didnt see much of his dad, who passed away five years ago. But it didnt really bother him. He was from Michigan, Taylor said. I had plenty of family with uncles, aunts and grandparents here. Taylors childhood was one of adventure. Mom worked and I ran in the woods like a wild Indian most of the time, he said. He was always searching for arrowheads. His mother took note of his hobby, and when he was 8, took him to an archaeological dig at Logansport. I believe I called and they said it would be fine if I brought him down there one day, Phelps said. At the site, Patty Jo Watson, a professor of anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis, let Taylor observe everything, Phelps said. After the dig she sent him a whole manuscript about the finds at Logansport, Phelps said. Taylor was intrigued by bones found at the site. It made him think about the history of the people who lived here before we came, he said. It made him want to read everything he could about archeology, history and science. But Taylor read much more than that. He read Sun Tzus The Art of War and J.R.R. Tolkiens The Lord of the Rings. It was a complete history of a civilization that never existed, Taylor said of Rings. I read everything. But Taylor didnt care much about studying in school at Morgantown Elementary School or Butler County High School, where he played trumpet in the band and ran track and field. I couldnt wait to be at home and get away from people, and be in the woods somewhere. Still, after he graduated from Butler County High School, he decided to attend Western Kentucky University. He wanted to be a science teacher. I leaned toward, at Western, physics and astronomy, Taylor said. I learned early on that you can hardly make a living at digging up bones unless you go far, far away, and I didnt want to go away while my grandparents were living. When mom was working, my grandmother kept me. That farm was my whole world when I was little. It was a place Taylor hoped to still live at one day if he got a job teaching school close to home. But Taylor would not become a science teacher. I got bored with college after two years, he said. He wanted to experience more of life, and not take a path that might lead him to be stuck in a classroom, he said. Louis LAmour wrote a book called Education of a Wandering Man, and I always associated myself with that. He quit Western and got a job working at a toll booth on the Natcher Parkway. He met everybody in the world there as cars filed through. Taylor said he stayed with the job for five years because he liked his co-workers. We were all like family, and I tend to work for organizations where the people are like family. But he was looking for a change. So he took a job at Southern States in Bowling Green as a merchandising supervisor. I was a do-all, he said. I did everything that was left over at the end of the day. … Theres not a farm in Warren County where Ive not been. He loved the work and his co-workers. Its probably the most family-oriented business Ive ever worked for, he said. They were real encouraging people to each other, and in a way, its what led me to where I am now. Because anhydrous ammonia fertilizer was being stolen from all over the country by people who wanted to use it to make methamphetamine, Southern States corporate (office) decided we needed a 24-man hazardous response team because they kept this chemical in bulk, and the fear was somebody would try to steal this and cause a major chemical release, Taylor said. Taylor was chosen from the Bowling Green area to be one of the men on the team. He underwent training provided by Southern States in Henderson and became a specialist in anhydrous ammonia. That was getting back into what I liked bizarre stuff, Taylor said. Soon, his name went into a state database of specialists in anhydrous ammonia, and police agencies began calling when they had questions about the chemical. Theyd call and say, How are we going to get rid of this, Taylor said. I didnt expect that to happen, and I dont think Southern States did either. I was more and more in touch with law enforcement. He became intrigued by the law. So when Butler County Sheriff Kenneth Morris asked Taylor if hed be interested in being a special deputy who could help with narcotics work, Taylor jumped at the chance, although he was still working at Southern States. By day Id spread fertilizer, he said, and at night Id come up here and do narcotics work on a volunteer basis in Butler County. He did the volunteer job for about two years, and soon began to love law enforcement. Then, this job came open with the city police in 2003, Taylor said. It was hard to leave his Southern States work, but after getting encouragement from several friends who were working in law enforcement, Taylor decided to become a police officer. He says he has now found his niche. Its taken him back to his childhood love. In a way, police work and archeology are very similar, he said. I hope eventually to work into investigative or detective work. Now, Taylor doesnt investigate much. He patrols a lot and talks to citizens. At night, he switches off duties with another Morgantown officer, and is the only policeman on Morgantown streets when it is his turn to work the night shift. Mary Alice Black, the wife of Morgantown Mayor Charles Black, said Taylor is a fine young man she has known since he was a boy. Giles wanted to be an officer, and had a very good job and gave it up to be an officer, she said. Taylors mother is proud of him, too just as shes proud of her other son, Jared Daugherty of Russellville. I have always been proud of Giles, Phelps said. Hes like one of those Lake Wobegon children. Hes above average. Taylor, who has a half brother, David Taylor, in Illinois, said he loves his small-town policing job. But there have been some growing pains associated with it. When he first came out of the 16-week Department of Justice Training Academy in Richmond, he tried to do all of his police work strictly by the book, he said. It took time for him to realize that in a small town population 2,544 he also had to get to know people. Its not about hammering the bad guys all the time, he said. Theres a lot of appearances and security. The elderly people in the community like to see the car go by at 3 oclock in the morning if they happen to be awake. And sometimes the people just want to talk. Many of Taylors evenings are quiet. In this town, its either nothing happens or its wide open, he said. But thats the nature of a small town. Its a place where he plans to stay on for a while where he and his wife, Moira, live on the family farm, separate from his mom and step-dad, Randell Phelps, who live there with his grandmother. Sometimes Taylor still walks in the woods, but he rarely looks for arrowheads now. Instead, I notice how much smaller everything is than it was in childhood days, he said. It used to be a lot bigger.  Daily News ·813 College St. ·PO Box 90012 ·Bowling Green, KY ·42102 ·270-781-1700