Deputy Saved by Bulletproof Vest: 'It Felt Like a Bee Sting'

When a woman flagged down Deputy Sheila Aull near the CVS on Broad River Road last Tuesday, Aull had a bad feeling about what was to come.

“She had blood all about her face,” said Aull, who has been patrolling the Broad River Road area with the Richland County Sheriff's Department since 2008. “She told me she had been assaulted.”

Aull called for EMS, got a description of the suspect and started looking for him.

What Aull didn’t know was that hours later, . 

During her first encounter with Jurgen behind a gas station on the other side of Broad River Road, Aull said she tried to stop him with her taser, but it malfunctioned. 

Aull and another deputy then spotted Jurgen at the corner of a house on Van Lingle Avenue. Jurgen shot at them, and the chase continued. 

Jurgen ended up inside an apartment at Farrington Way. When he fled from the back of the apartment, he started shooting.

Aull said Jurgen was about a car-and-a-half in length away from her when he looked at her and the other deputies near her and started shooting at them. 

One of the bullets hit Aull in the chest, but didn't get past her bullet proof vest.

"It felt like a bee sting," Aull said.

But the hit didn’t knock her down.

“It instantly ticked me off and I felt like a pit bull on a chain ready to go,” Aull said. “I just wanted to go get the person who was trying to hurt me.” 

Aull and several other deputies returned fire. Jurgen died at the scene. 

After the shooting stopped, Aull said she was holding her chest because she felt a burning sensation. She heard other deputies yelling, “Sheila, are you hit? Sheila, are you hit?” 

“It was like a swarm of law enforcement surrounded me. It was like angels all around me,” Aull said. “It was the best feeling ever. It was awesome. And they had their backs toward me making sure that no one else was shooting.”

Aull spent one night in the hospital and was back at work just a day after the shooting. 

Although she never wants to be in a situation in which she has to shoot at someone, Aull doesn't doubt her actions that day.

“I think about the family of the victim and I pray for them," she said, "but it had to be done.”

Aull and other deputies involved in the shooting have been through counseling with a psychologist and are continuing to receive support, Sheriff Leon Lott said.

Aull saw the bullet proof vest and shirt she was wearing on the day of the shooting for the first time Tuesday when she met with reporters.

“It’s a very eerie feeling, but I’m glad to know that I’m alive.”