BROWNSVILLE — As two probation and parole officers made their rounds on a recent afternoon in Edmonson County, Edmonson County Sheriff’s Detective Wally Ritter drove behind them from one house to another, got out of his car and either went to the front door with a parole officer or covered the back in case a wanted parolee took off running.

“He’s definitely there when you need him,” Probation and Parole Officer Lauren Russell said during her lunch break with Ritter and several others at Walden’s Barbecue in Brownsville.

Prior to becoming a sworn deputy nearly three years ago, the now clean-cut Ritter, 27, a graduate of Edmonson County High School and Western Kentucky University, was a long-haired country boy with a love of the outdoors. Ritter worked as an intern at the sheriff’s office for about six months going on ride alongs and learning as much as he could about law enforcement work before attending the law enforcement academy in Richmond.

“As an intern, he was more willing to work than 60 percent of the police officers I’ve known in my life,” Edmonson County Sheriff Shane Doyle said. “I have to make him go home. He’s very willing to work, always puts himself second.”

That work ethic and willingness to put others’ needs ahead of his own has resulted in Ritter engaging in situations in which he was able to stop a sexual assault in progress earlier this year and protected the life of his boss in a 2015 incident earning him a Medal of Valor this year from the National Sheriff’s Association. 

Doyle presented Ritter with the Medal of Valor earlier this year. Ritter was off duty Feb. 10, 2015, and had stopped by the sheriff’s office to talk to Doyle who was heading out to answer a call about a trespasser. It’s the sort of call that could have been something as a simple as a neighbor seeing a person he didn’t recognize walking through a nearby yard.

But it wasn’t.

Ritter had just been to Bowling Green and decided he would back up Doyle, who due to staffing levels and other calls, was answering that particular call alone. Ritter put on a ballistic vest over his civilian clothes and grabbed a rifle on his way out of the office. As Ritter was headed to the call, he learned from a dispatcher that the homeowner had fired a shot at the trespasser. He later learned the homeowner fired several rounds into the man’s truck, disabling the vehicle, as the man was driving toward the homeowner, Ritter said.

“Me and the sheriff got there about the same time,” he said. 

They entered the home through the back door, went down some stairs and found the homeowner on the floor struggling over a weapon with the man who went from being a trespasser to a home intruder, Ritter said. The man fought Doyle and Ritter and attempted to take Doyle’s gun from him. Ritter considered for a moment shooting the intruder but was afraid the shot might miss and hit Doyle instead.

“It’s the closest I’ve come to shooting somebody,” Ritter said. Finally Doyle and Ritter were able to gain control of the man, cuff him and place him under arrest. The case against the man is pending in Edmonson Circuit Court. For Ritter’s act of courage in backing up his boss, Ritter received the medal earlier this year and was taken completely by surprise, he said.

In April, Ritter answered another trespassing call. While in route he learned that the call had changed from a trespassing to an assault and he asked a dispatcher to send another deputy for back up. Ritter arrived first at the home of a woman in the Chalybeate community sometime after 12 a.m. April 13.

Ritter walked in on a sexual assault in progress with the female homeowner crawling on the floor in an attempt to get away from the man Ritter said he saw assaulting her. Ritter arrested the man charging him with a variety of assault offenses. That case, also, is still in court.

Ritter enjoys serving the community in which he was raised. He earned a bachelor’s degree from WKU in 2013 with plans to go into federal law enforcement but instead to decided to stay in Edmonson County.

“I decided while I was young, I wanted to be on patrol,” he said from the driver’s seat of his unmarked SUV. “This is a fun job. I don’t feel like I’ve worked a day since I started.

“I enjoy serving the community. I like a lot of the adrenaline high that goes with the job. I like being able to work outside. I like being able to get out and drive around,” he said.

“What I like about this job is the mix of everything we get to do,” Ritter said.

What his peers like about him is, well, everything if you ask.

Deputy Amanda Coniglio refers to Ritter as “awesome” and “very dedicated.”

“He’s just great to work with,” she said.

Probation and Patrol Officer Josh Watt who went to high school with Ritter entrusts him with his safety.

“He’d do anything for you,” Watt said. “I would trust him to go to hell and back with me.”

Doyle has nothing but praise for the detective who put his life on the line for him.

“I really, honestly believe he got into this line of work for all of the right reasons,” Doyle said.

— Follow Assistant City Editor Deborah Highland on Twitter @BGDNCrimebeat or visit bgdailynews.com.