Officer collapses at game
By Ron Brown / Lynchburg News & Advance
January 19, 2004
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To those who knew him, Tony Herndon was the picture of health.
He always helped with little league sports, Campbell County Sheriff Terry Gaddy said. He helped many of the youth in the county over the years.
Herndon, 43, also was passionate about his work as a college basketball official.
So it came as a shock when Herndon, a lieutenant at the Campbell County Sheriffs Department, collapsed and died while refereeing a game at Shenandoah University in Winchester on Saturday night.
It was very much unexpected, Gaddy said.
Gaddy, who took over as Campbell County sheriff on Jan. 1, said dealing with the unexpected death of a veteran officer is a learning experience.
Its new to me, he said. This is the first time I have ever had to deal with something like this.
On Saturday night, Gaddy got sheriffs office supervisors to notify deputies and staff of Herndons death.
Tony was a wonderful guy who brought a lot of humor and professionalism to his job, Gaddy said.
Those qualities had endeared him to many in the sheriffs office.
He was the type of person that everybody in the department called friend, Gaddy said.
On Sunday, priority No. 1 for the department was to make sure Herndons family had all the support they needed.
Well help the family in any way we can, Gaddy said.
Funeral arrangements for the 23-year sheriffs office veteran were incomplete Sunday night.
On Saturday night, Herndon had worked his way into the second half of a USA South Conference game between Shenandoah University and North Carolina Wesleyan, when he blew his whistle after making an out-of-bounds call.
Suddenly, he collapsed.
He fell and most people thought he tripped, said his fiancee, Barbara Stewart.
Barry Deuel, coordinator of athletic training services at Shenandoah, was one of the first people to reach Herndon.
Deuel and others noticed that Herndons pulse and breathing had diminished.
The trainer and other medical professionals began CPR and the use of an Automatic External Defibrillator in a futile attempt to revive Herndon.
Rescue personnel arrived shortly and continued life-saving efforts before transporting Herndon to Winchester Medical Center.
Meanwhile, an eerie silence quickly fell over what had been an enthusiastic, near-capacity crowd of 688 on hand for Shenandoahs first conference home game of the season. Players from both teams went to their benches. First they watched helplessly. Then they huddled in prayer.
Herndon, who suffered from hypertension, died a short time later at the hospital of an apparent heart attack.
An autopsy will be performed in Northern Virginia to determine the exact cause of death.
Stewart said her fiance died doing one of the things he loved doing.
He was dedicated to all parts of his professional life, she said.
On Saturday morning, Herndon, a father of four, took time to indulge in another one of his passions.
He coached his son Malik, 10, in a little league basketball game before going to Northern Virginia.
It was there that the police officer, the referee and the father in Tony Herndon came together.
He tried to teach the baby to be a successful adult, Stewart said. He wanted him to know the right way of doing things.
Contact Ron Brown at
[email protected] or (434) 385-5542. Reporter Ben Brooks of the Winchester Star contributed to this story.