Troy Sharp was beloved by the W’burg community

Several years ago before I joined the staff of the News Journal, the newspaper used to do an April Fools’ Day edition with a fake front page filled with ridiculous, made up stories in honor of the day that no one could possibly take seriously. It was all in good humor.

Mark White is Editor of The News Journal.

My favorite that I heard about concerned a made-up story about the Williamsburg Police Department’s new “drug-sniffing gerbille.” I think Troy Sharp was then the assistant police chief when he played along for the interview.

As I said, the April Fools’ Day stories were stuff that no one could possibly take seriously, well, almost no one.

As Troy told me the story once, he had this woman calling him up wanting him to bring the “drug-sniffing gerbille” out to a school so the students could see it. Try as he might, Troy could not convince the woman that the story was just an April Fools’ Day joke.

Finally, he told the woman that he couldn’t bring it out due to “insurance” reasons, which finally put an end to the conversation…LOL.

Troy was a fun person just to hang around, and when I think about him, this is a story that frequently comes to mind.

It’s a story, which I thought about when I heard about Troy’s passing Thursday.

I was fortunate to run into him during Old Fashioned Trading Days a few weeks ago and we talked for a few minutes. He was riding in his golf cart. You could tell that he knew he didn’t have a lot of time left.

Troy joined the Williamsburg Police Department in the early 1980’s, and was a pretty darn good cop with great people skills and great instincts.

I remember one case back in the 1990s I think it was when someone robbed either a local bank or local store in Williamsburg. Troy was one of the first officers to respond to area and noticed somebody near a vehicle not too far from the robbery location. The person didn’t look like the alleged robber, but something wasn’t sitting right with Troy.

When Troy got over to him, the guy was standing outside his vehicle. Troy asked to see his license and registration. The guy moved to get something from inside his vehicle and started to reach towards the center console.

For reasons that Troy never could explain aside from divine intervention, he felt compelled to draw his gun, which he didn’t usually do in that situation. After Troy drew his gun, the guy reached inside the glove box and got out the vehicle registration instead of reaching into the center console.

As it turned out, the guy Troy stopped was the partner of the robber. There was a gun in the center console. Police later tied these two to a string of robberies across several states, including at least a couple of murders.

Troy retired from the Williamsburg Police Department the first time in 2003 after serving more than 20 years. He would go on to work as a court bailiff for several years at the sheriff’s department, and in 2010, he was easily elected to the first of three terms on the Williamsburg City Council.

However, he cut that third term short when he resigned as a city councilman in July 2015 so that he could go back to work at the police department to serve as the first school resource officer in the history of Williamsburg Independent School.

This was a job that Troy was meant to do. He was fantastic with kids. He took the job, in part, to spend a little more time around his grand kids.

He loved it and the kids adored him.

It is doubtful there will ever be another school resource officer at Williamsburg Independent School as popular as Troy. I also think he will go down along with the late Russell Jones as probably the two most beloved officers, who ever served on the Williamsburg Police Department.

Rest in peace my friend. You’re earned it.