mont26's blog post - There are days I miss it and then there are days........

A Clay County Deputy's right hand was reattached at UAB Hospital after it was cut off by an ax-wielding man he was trying to arrest Friday night, a sheriff's spokesman said.

Deputies shot and killed the man after the attack.

Deputies were trying to serve an arrest warrant on a man on Sawmill Road - off Alabama 79 near the intersection with Alabama 149 - when the incident took place between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. Friday, said Clay County Sheriff's Capt. Steve Cotney. During the arrest attempt, the man picked up a bush ax used for chopping down bushes and limbs and started swinging it, he said.




A deputy had his right hand severed. He was taken by helicopter to UAB Hospital where his hand was reattached, Cotney said.

Deputies shot the ax-wielding man, who was pronounced dead at the scene, he said. The names of the deputy and the man who was killed are not being released yet, Cotney said.

Cotney said he spoke to the deputy late Sunday afternoon after and the officer had a pulse in all five fingers following surgery to reattach the hand.

"That was very good news," he said. "Today (Sunday) they went back in and did some more surgery and afterwards he could actually move some of his fingers."

Cotney declined to give more details about the incident or the ax-wielding man because the Alabama Bureau of Investigation is investigating. The ABI is routinely called upon to investigate shootings involving law enforcement officers.

*Anybody wonder why I took advantage of our 20 year and out pension plan?*