Bill Baxley

Tony Richardson and Bill Hardy had been colleagues at the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office for 17 years.

Richardson remembers the last time he saw Hardy alive.

Did you go to the actual scene?

Yeah.

What did you encounter when you got there?

Paramedics had already lifted Bill Hardy into an ambulance and rushed him to the emergency room of Birmingham's largest hospital.

He is gravely injured with two gunshot wounds to his head and jaw.

A medical examiner notes a bullet wound to Hardy's finger likely means he raised his hand in a defensive posture when he was shot.

Police go to his house to tell his wife, Patricia Diane Hardy, and bring her to the hospital.

Jim Woodward, the chief deputy in Jefferson County, also rushes over when he hears that Hardy was shot.

What do you remember about the incident?

What does that feel like when you are a career law enforcement officer?

Deputy Bill Hardy is pronounced dead seven hours after he was shot.

The cause of death is two gunshot wounds fired at close range.

I wanted to know more about Deputy Hardy, so I wrote to several family members, inviting them to talk.

They never responded, and I can only imagine his murder must be one of the hardest things they've ever experienced.

But I have learned a few things about Deputy Hardy.

He was married to Patricia Diane Hardy.

He had two children and four adult stepchildren.

Hardy started working as a deputy in 1972.