FRANKFORT, KY — Gov. Andy Beshear is ordering flags at all state buildings to be lowered to half-staff on Saturday in honor of Calloway County Chief Deputy Jody Cash, who died Monday after he was shot outside the Marshall County Sheriff's Office.
Cash's funeral will be held at 1 p.m. on Saturday at the CFSB Center on the campus of Murray State University. "I invite anybody else flying a flag anywhere in this commonwealth to lower your flags to half-staff to honor Chief Deputy Cash," Beshear said Thursday during his weekly Team Kentucky update.
"Words cannot express the pain our commonwealth is feeling at the very recent loss, in fact this week, of Calloway County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Jody Cash, a former member of the state police who lost his life on Monday, May 16, in service to Kentucky," Beshear said.
Before the funeral, a visitation service will be held from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Cash's home church, Hardin Baptist Church in Hardin, Kentucky. The church remembered cash during a service Wednesday night.
"Chief Deputy Cash was connected in that community, as are his family and his kids. They go to church with some very close friends of mine," Beshear said Thursday. "I know that everybody is hurting for that family, but is also here to support them in both prayer and in action. Just like the 558 peace officers whose names are etched on the Kentucky Law Enforcement Memorial Monument, Chief Deputy Cash served the commonwealth with pride, with dignity, with bravery and with honor."
Beshear talked about Cash's deep connection to the west Kentucky communities in which he served.
"Chief Deputy Cash began his law enforcement career with the Caldwell County Sheriff's Office, and went on to serve with the Murray State University Police. He served with the Kentucky State Police from 2011 to 2018, where he retired as a sergeant before joining the Calloway County Sheriff's Office. While serving as the KSP Post 1 public affairs officer, he responded to the 2018 Marshall County High School shooting, where he served as the face of the agency during the tragedy. He performed that difficult task with dignity, respect, compassion and love to a community that was hurting in such a tragic time and had seen such an unspeakable and horrific act."
The governor also discussed Cash's connection and commitment to his fellow members of law enforcement.
"Chief Deputy Cash attended the Department of Criminal Justice Training's post criminal incident seminar as a participant in 2017 after experiencing three traumatic events, two of which involved line-of-duty deaths. After attending his first seminar, he signed up to be a peer to help others who experienced similar things," Beshear said. "He participated in nearly all seminars giving his time and facing his trauma to help other people after 2017 and until the present. Chief Deputy Cash chose to use his past law enforcement experiences to minister to and assist those other officers and dispatchers dealing with some of the toughest days that they had been through."
"To Jody's family, fellow officers, friends, the community, your church family, the commonwealth is grieving with you and praying with and for you," Beshear said. "Chief Deputy Jody Cash will never be forgotten."
This week is also National Police Week, a time to honor the memory of officers who gave their lives in the line of duty and to share gratitude for law enforcement officers serving communities across the United States.
"Between the remembrance that the National Police Week brings and the recent loss of Jody, we should all be reminded that our law enforcement selflessly serve day after day without knowing the danger that awaits them," Beshear said. "This week, let us take time to thank them. If you're out and you see a police officer, a deputy sheriff, a court security officer, a school resource officer, anybody that's out there — I got a chance to thank a security officer at a hospital yesterday at an event — take a moment to say thank you. And thank you always means more when you say why. I got a chance to say thank you for keeping everybody in this building safe. Because of them, Kentucky is better and safer for our kids and for everybody."
