August 31, 2010 —
The daughter of one of Morehead’s law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty has fond memories of her father.
The sad saga of Sam Green’s death is only overshadowed by memories he left behind by his life.
According to Shirley Green Farris, her father was shot Dec. 31, 1961, his last night in office just nearly four hours before the end of his term as Rowan County Sheriff.
“He had been collecting the taxes and he had just gone home around five or six o’clock,” Farris said. “A city policeman (Carl Johnson) called him to ask him if he would come down to west Morehead to arrest Orville Perry. Orville’s wife had come up to the courthouse and got a warrant for his arrest as he had been beating her up.
“He was just being rowdy, my dad knew, he had arrested him before,” Farris said. “My dad was good at talking to somebody and getting them to come to jail or behave themselves, they said most people would listen to him but I guess Orville had it in for the law and had been in jail for many different things. Dad knew what he was like and I guess didn’t take him too serious.”
The two officers then went to arrest Perry, according to Farris. She said Johnson covered the front door and her father covered the back.
Since they had a warrant Green opened the door, walked into a little porch area and opened the door into the kitchen area, Farris said.
“When he opened the door Orville Perry was standing off at the end of the kitchen or the beginning of the dining room, it was a straight shot through there and he was waiting for dad to come in and when dad walked through the door he shot him with a shotgun,” she said. “Carl couldn’t get in the front door, he heard the shot and he came running around the side of the building and my dad had already been shot and he was laying on the floor.”
According to Farris, Perry then shot Johnson and fled the scene.
Johnson crawled back to the car and called for help. According to Farris, a search was then conducted for Perry.
“I understand it took about 45 minutes to find him,” she said. “He was hid in an old dog house. They took him to jail (in Rowan County). They were afraid to leave him in the jail because they didn’t feel it was safe enough because the scuttlebutt around there. There were a bunch of people that was going to get him out and hang him so they took him to Winchester to hold him till the trial.”
Farris was 26 when her dad was killed in 1961.
Perry was sentenced to life in prison with an additional 21 years on March 22, 1962 by a Rowan County Grand Jury.
Sam Green took his first term as Rowan County Sheriff in 1947. Green was the second of two law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty in Rowan County. The other was Morehead Police Department Officer John Leslie Ward. Ward was shot and killed in 1942 after stopping a man for a hit-and-run accident. Officer Ward observed the accident at an intersection and shouted for the suspect to stop. After a short chase the suspect stopped and opened fire on Officer Ward and a state trooper. Officer Ward was survived by his wife and nine children.
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