Shane Michael Gaumer will forever remember the evening of Dec. 23, 2022, at the Tellico Village Yacht Club. He was enjoying the annual Loudon County Sheriff’s Office Christmas party with wife Ashley and friends at their table. Then he heard his name. It was the voice of LCSO Deputy Chief Zac Frye.
Shane Gaumer
Frye’s announcement, in part, was: “… Deputy Shane Gaumer is awarded Deputy of the Year for 2022.” What a Christmas present it was and remains in the life of this 33-year-old deputy sheriff, who was caught off guard and shocked.
“I was completely blown away. Shocked. Stunned. There are a bunch of deputies I work with who are as deserving or more deserving than I am for this,” Gaumer said. “I’m blessed to be working here. We have top-tier people here and I’m blessed to be among them. I’m very thankful.”
Frye added these comments: “Shane’s personality and demeanor make him a natural leader. He’s a natural born leader and our guys flock to him. He’s a go-to guy for us. He’s warm, super motivated and genuine and passionate about everything he does.”
Gaumer is forever grateful to retired Loudon County Sheriff Tim Guider, who hired him three years ago. “He sat me down and we talked and he said he thought I’d be a great fit here. He gave me my shot here. It was special when he shook my hand that day.” And Guider was there when Gaumer was honored. That led to another very special handshake.
For the last week or so, Gaumer’s been focused on something beyond work. On Feb. 8, 2023, Ashley gave birth to a little girl, Rowan Ellis Gaumer, 7 pounds, 8 ounces at Blount Memorial Hospital. That’s kid No. 4 for the family, which Ashley now calls “The Gaum Squad.” The baby’s siblings are Payton, 14; Will, 8; and Theo, 6.
Ashley returned to the hospital after a few days with sepsis. “She had the same thing after Theo was born,” he said. After two or three days, Ashley was transferred to the University of Tennessee Medical Center. Her sepsis did not clear up and then she was diagnosed with endometriosis. Gaumer took his wife home Saturday night.
He’s back at work today, beginning a week-long class to become an FTO – field training officer, which means he will begin teaching new patrol deputies as they are hired before they can patrol alone without a partner.
Teaching and training are his passions. Here are a few examples.
He’s a DTI instructor – defensive tactics used to control a prisoner and keep yourself and others safe in doing so.
He is becoming the agency’s Tennessee Highway Safety Officer (THSO) coordinator. That job will consist of writing grants, reporting crash and ticket statistics, and reporting on all traffic involvement over the course of each year.
Near the end of this year he will begin training for his state certification in CIT – crisis intervention training. This covers situations involving suicide, drug-related psychosis (mimics a mental health breakdown), PTSD and domestic violence, among others. “Think of it as verbal judo with compassion,” he said.
Gaumer’s hometown is Canton, Illinois, and before coming to East Tennessee he spent five years working in corrections – in Canton for about 18 months and 3 ½ years in Aspen, Colorado, at the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office. While he was in Canton, Ashley came to town searching for her birth father. They met in a bar. “Right after I met her I called my folks and told them I’d found the woman I’m going to marry,” he says. “Ashley didn’t see it that way at first.” Six months later they married.
Why move to East Tennessee from Colorado?
“My parents would bring us through here to visit family in Alabama. And I fell in love with it. Then one day I heard Chris Stapleton singing ‘Tennessee Whiskey’ and I got this crazy notion to move here. I talked to Ashley about it and we took a leap of faith and moved.” They found their perfect home near Vonore and he applied to several agencies. Blount County hired him. Six months later he applied to Loudon County and was hired.
In the middle of his three years at Loudon County he decided he wanted to serve in the military. He was off to basic training at Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia, and is now a member of the Tennessee National Guard’s 4/278th Armored Cavalry Scout unit in Greeneville. He is a gunner on a Bradley fighting vehicle.
On his days off, and with good weather, he and the family fish along the banks of the Tennessee River near Marble Bluff and below the Fort Loudon Dam. He calls it “my peace time.” He’s landed a 15-pound striped bass but Ashley has the family record – a 20-pound catfish. “She loves fishing as much as I do.”
Not recalling exactly how it came up, Gaumer talked about a 13-year-old boy walking around in the rain outside his home, serious about taking his life. “I answered the call and pulled into their driveway and met him face-to-face. After a few minutes we sat down in the driveway in the pouring rain and spent 30 to 45 minutes talking. I assured him that no matter what, I was not going anywhere until I knew he was OK.
“He was dealing with a lot of the same issues I did when I was his age. I struggled with my self-worth. He had school issues and issues at home and his girlfriend had just broken up with him. I told him that things will get better. It was a good talk. When we stood up, he hugged me and I took him to the hospital to get him back on the right path. About six months ago I was at his school and saw him in a hallway. He smiled and waved and said he was doing great and hugged me again.”
Gaumer paused. “You know, this job beats all of us down from time to time. But then you have moments like this that make it all worth it for all of us. I have found my passion and my home here in our community.”
Tom King has been the editor of newspapers in Texas and California and also worked in Tennessee and Georgia.
