Published 5:07 pm Wednesday, August 12, 2026 TIFTON — A group of officers from the city, county, and beyond received recognition for saving some of their colleagues at a recent Tift County Board of Commissioners meeting. Representatives of the Georgia Fraternal Order of Police presented this collection of first responders with the Presidential Award of Valor during the Aug. 10 commission meeting, thanking them for their courageous and selfless efforts to rescue two Tifton police officers during an incident last year. The two detectives, Michael Gaskins and Jerry Fulford, suffered injuries during a joint investigation between the Tifton Fire Department, Tift County Sheriff’s Department, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Dec. 5, where they attempted to serve a search warrant to a suspect on Lee Avenue that proceeded to open fire upon them. Stripling Luke, Assistant Special Agent with the GBI and the Fraternal Order of Police member who submitted a request for the recognition, reported that the men on the scene risked their lives and entered the line of fire to retrieve the injured detectives and evacuate them from the area. Georgia FOP President Mike Callahan, who presented the team of first responders with their awards, added that officers deployed an armored car to the scene, but doubted it would arrive in time given Gaskins and Fulford’s injuries. He praised the brave group of men for their endeavor to rescue the pair, claiming they were here today because of those…
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