Family, Friends & Fellow Officers Remember...

May you rest peacefully in Heaven Deputy Hopper. Your sacrifice will never be forgotten.

Patrolman Kenneth Collins
South Amherst Police Department

January 2, 2024

NEVER FORGET! Please join me and honor the dedicated service and ultimate sacrifice of Deputy Sheriff Suzanne Michelle Hopper of the Clark County Sheriff's Office, Ohio and the additional 82 American Peace Officers who have paid the ultimate sacrifice on this date in history.

Superintendent Joe Morbitzer (Retired)
Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification & Investigation

January 1, 2024

You are not forgotten, Deputy Hopper. May you rest in peace in Heaven.

Patrolman Kenneth Collins
South Amherst Police Department

January 2, 2023

Sue,
It’s been over a decade, and it seems like you were savagely killed yesterday. As Deputy you have always had a special place in my Blue heart.
Always look down, and protect our brothers and sisters from potential harm.
You have not been forgotten, even in my own small way.

Bob Dvoroznak (retired Deputy)
Cuyahoga County Sheriffs Office

January 1, 2023

NEVER FORGET! On behalf of the Ohio Attorneys General Bureau of Criminal Identification & Investigation, we honor the dedicated service and ultimate sacrifice of Deputy Sheriff Suzanne Michelle Hopper of the Clark County Sheriff's Office, Ohio and the additional 84 American Peace Officers who have paid the ultimate sacrifice on this date in history.

Superintendent Joe Morbitzer
Ohio Attorney General, Bureau of Criminal Investigation

January 1, 2023

Deputy Hopper will never be forgotten. Thank you for your service. May God bless your family. RIP.

Retired First Sergeant Thomas Webb
New York State Police - Troop "D"

July 26, 2022

May God and St. Michael watch over you and your family.

Kenneth Collins
South Amherst Police Department

January 2, 2022

Dear Suzanne,
As the anniversary of your tragic loss comes due, the memories of that heartbreak come back as clear as if they were yesterday.

May your memory remain forever in the hearts of our Ohio Deputy Sheriffs.

Dear God, please spend special attention and watch over Suzanne’s family for their supreme sacrifice.

Robert Dvoroznak (Retired Deputy Sheriff
Cuyahoga County Sheriffs Office

January 1, 2022

NEVER FORGET! On behalf of the Ohio Attorneys General Bureau of Criminal Identification & Investigation, we honor the dedicated service and ultimate sacrifice of Deputy Sheriff Suzanne Michelle Hopper of the Clark County Sheriff's Office, Ohio and the additional 81 American Peace Officers who have paid the ultimate sacrifice on this date in history.

Superintendent Joe Morbitzer
Ohio Attorney General, Bureau of Criminal Investigation

January 1, 2022

Clark County officials consider naming 9-1-1 center after deputy killed in the line of duty

Posted on Jan 23, 202
Springfield News Sun

The Board of Clark County Commissioners has begun discussions about naming the county’s new 9-1-1 communications center after a sheriff’s deputy who was killed in the line of duty in 2011.

Commissioner Richard Lohnes suggested to the board that the county consider naming the new center after Clark County Sheriff’s Deputy Suzanne Hopper.

Hopper, 40, was shot and killed on Jan. 1, 2011. She was responding to a call about shots fired into a camper at the Enon Beach Campground when she was ambushed by Michael Ferryman.

Dozens of officers and deputies from surrounding jurisdictions responded to the officer down call and engaged in a shootout with Ferryman, who fired upon anyone attempting to help Hopper.

“I was elected in 2010 and my first day in office was Jan. 1, 2011,” Lohnes said. “That was my very first day and I’ve been thinking about it and I think we should name the Clark County 9-1-1 Communications Center the Deputy Suzanne Hopper Center.”

Lohnes said he discussed the name with “a couple other prominent community members and business owners,” Clark County Sheriff Deborah Burchett and Major Chris Clark, who will be one person in charge of running the center.

“I haven’t heard from anyone that it’s a bad idea,” Lohnes said.

The other commissioners agreed and the county will now look into options for making the naming possible.

“I think it’s a wonderful idea. It honors our first responders. It honors someone who gave their life in the line of duty and it’s really what quick dispatching is all about, making sure that we protect those who respond and those we are responding to. I think it’s a great connection,” Commissioner President Melanie Flax Wilt said.

The new $5 million 9-1-1 communications facility is currently being built on Home Road in the former Clark County Department of Job and Family Services Children’s Home. The current 3,800-square-foot facility will be repurposed as an office and training facility while a 3,300-square-foot addition will house all 9-1-1 dispatch operations.

The center will house dispatching services for all Clark County emergency management personnel excluding Green Twp.

Retired Police Officer
NYPD

January 24, 2021

May God and St. Michael watch over you in Heaven.

Patrolman Kenneth Collins

January 10, 2021

Clark County Ohio Sheriff’s Deputy Suzanne Hopper remembered 10 years after she was fatally shot

Posted on Friday, Jan 1, 2021
Springfield News Sun

Today marks 10 years since Clark County Sheriff’s Deputy Suzanne Hopper was killed in the line of duty.

In a statement sent to the Springfield News-Sun, Hopper’s family said the 10th anniversary isn’t any “easier than the ones before or the ones to come after.”

“We think of her every day and miss her very much. The world was definitely a better place with her in it. As we’ve said many times, it was the way she lived, not the way she died that made her a hero,” the statement said.

Clark County Sheriff Deborah Burchett said in honor of the day, members of the sheriff’s office will visit her grave in the afternoon to pray and lay flowers. Burchett said Hopper’s death is “just something we will never get over.”

Hopper, 40, was shot at 11:35 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2011. She was responding to a call about shots fired into a camper at the Enon Beach Campground when she was ambushed by Michael Ferryman, a man who’d been found not guilty by reason of insanity following a violent encounter with law enforcement in Morgan County a decade earlier.

Dozens of officers and deputies from surrounding jurisdictions responded to the officer down call and engaged in a shootout with Ferryman, who fired upon anyone attempting to help Hooper.

Ferryman was also killed in the shootout. Maria Blessing, Ferryman’s longtime girlfriend, was sentenced to five years in prison for her decision to provide him with the firearm that killed Hooper, despite the knowledge that he had a history of mental illness.

At her funeral, thousands of law enforcement officers from across the country drove a 1,600-vehicle procession through Clark County and stood in heavy snowfall as she was laid to rest.

Burchett was not sheriff at the time of Hopper’s death, but said she was one of the pallbearers at her funeral, as well as a friend.

“She gave her heart and soul to her job. It’s truly sad when this rolls around every year. It brings up some really bad memories that are frankly just really sad to talk about,” Burchett said.

In the years since Hopper was killed in the line of duty, she’s been memorialized in ways both large and small.

Thousands of people who never knew Hopper drive the stretch of Interstate 70 named for her every day. Her name is etched among 20,000 other fallen officers at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington D.C., and an Ohio law created in her honor has improved officer safety by better informing them about individuals with mental illness.

The law, passed in 2013, allows officers in Ohio access to know about every person with a mental illness who has been dealt with by an Ohio court — whether found not guilty by reason of insanity, found incompetent to stand trial or ordered into mental health treatment by a judge.

Hopper was more than a law enforcement officer.

She started a local volleyball fundraiser for the Special Olympics in 2008 and it has grown in the years since her death. More than a dozen teams compete annually.

A group of Zanesville police officers paid tribute to Hopper in 2019 as part of their weekly workouts honoring fallen members of various services.

Patrolman Bryan Wolfe and other police officers moved the workouts from a Wednesday to a Saturday in May “because this one is so special and see if other people want to do it with us.”

The workouts consisted of four rounds of time in honor of Hopper’s four children.

Hopper’s family statement described her as “an amazing person and an outstanding Deputy that went above and beyond to serve her community.”

“She will never be forgotten by her friends and we are very grateful that people that may not have known her personally will take the time to remember her on New Year’s Day,” Hopper’s family’s statement said.

Suzanne Hopper is survived by her parents, Charles and Bonnie Bauer, and her children Emily Bauer, Charles Waughtel and step-children Madeleine and Cole Hopper. Hopper’s husband, Matthew, died in 2014 at the age of 38 following a battle with cancer.

Retired Police Officer
NYPD

January 1, 2021

Deputy Sheriff Hopper,
On today, the 10th anniversary of your death I would just like to say thank you for your service and sacrifice for the citizens of Clark County. And to your Family and loved ones, I wish to extend my deepest sympathy.

R.I.P.
USBP

Anonymous
United States Border Patrol

January 1, 2021

Rest in peace always knowing that your service and sacrifice will never be forgotten by your law enforcement brethren.

Detective Cpl/3 Steven Rizzo
Delaware State Police (Retired)

January 1, 2021

NEVER FORGET! On behalf of the Ohio Attorney Generals Bureau of Criminal Identification & Investigation, we honor the dedicated service and ultimate sacrifice of Deputy Sheriff Suzanne Michelle Hopper of the Clark County Sheriff's Office, Ohio
and the additional 82 American Peace Officers who have paid the ultimate sacrifice on this date in history.

Superintendent Joe Morbitzer
Ohio Attorney General, Bureau of Criminal Investigation

January 1, 2021

I don't know you Suzanne. I just saw your sigb here on I-70. I'm sure the world was a better place when you were in it.

Considering your killer is also passed on. I hope you are having a wonderful time playing Cops and Robbers.

With sympathy to the suvivors.

Justa passing Trucker
None

May 19, 2020

Hello, dear sister. I’m sorry for not posting in January, but I’ve been working on many things with the boys. But I have not forgotten. I never will, and neither will anyone else. Your impact is still here, and you carry on in our hearts and thoughts, and the same for the community you served. We all miss you terribly, and we’re all grateful that you still watch over us all. And now you have Christian and Kadin to add, as my sons embark on public service. I pray for their safety every day, and take comfort in knowing they have extra protection from you.

We love you sis.

Lt. Kristopher Shultz
Clark County Sheriff’s Office

February 12, 2020

Rest in peace Deputy Sheriff Hopper.

Rabbi Lewis S. Davis

May 27, 2019

Another year has come, and this day gets no easier, dear friend. I miss you terribly, as everyone does. But we carry on, because you would do that if it were one of us. So we will do our duty, tomorrow and every other day, and strive to live up to your example. And we will never forget....

Lieutenant Kristopher Shultz
Clark County Sheriff's Office

January 1, 2019

It is due to her final sacrifice that many others lived. Her fellow officers could also have been killed or seriously wounded, but she also fulfilled her oath to protect us ordinary citizens. Any person that had come near that trailer could have been fired upon, even children riding their bikes or chasing a ball. I salute you Deputy Harper for your dedication and bravery on your Final Watch.

Holly Rockwell-Celerier
Civilian

November 25, 2018

John 5:28, 29 - "Do not be amazed at this, for the hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice and come out". I pray that everyone can find peace in knowing that we will see this officer as well as many others again in Paradise soon. Until then, please accept my condolences.

A.W. Montgomery
Concerned Citizen

September 21, 2018

Another year passes, and another anniversary of your loss comes with it. Yesterday was a hard one. We are becoming the old guard, sis, but the new kids learn who you are from day one. They look at your case. They see your cover, your cuffs, your badge.... We won't let them ever forget....

The pain never ends, but I still drive on. It is too important not to, but you already know that. I take heart that you are with me, every day, in my office, looking down on me from your photo on the wall....

We love you, sis. And we miss you....

Lt. Kristopher E. Shultz
Clark County Sheriff's Office, Ohio

January 2, 2018

NEVER FORGET! On behalf of the Westerville, Ohio Division of Police, we honor the dedicated service and ultimate sacrifice of Deputy Sheriff Suzanne Michelle Hopper of the Clark County Sheriff's Office, Ohio and the additional 87 American Peace Officers who have paid the ultimate sacrifice on this date in history.

Chief Joe Morbitzer
Westerville, Ohio Division of Police

January 2, 2018

Rest In Peace Deputy.

SPD Explorer Frankie Ramsdell
Sandown Police Department

January 1, 2018

Rest well my sister.

Lieutenant Ray Flores
NYPD (retired)

January 1, 2018