Bartow County deputy delivers emotional remarks about his friendship with fallen Carroll County depu

I told Liza that I wasn't going to, um, write a speech but a couple of nights ago I said, well, if I don't write it down, I, yeah, I'm sorry. Ok. Mm. My name is Clay Patterson. Um, first before I talk about Taylor, I wanted to start. I'm just saying how much I appreciate that over overwhelming amount of support over the last nine days to try and name everyone is impossible from the public safety agencies and the organizations. But I am gonna mention a few that have just stuck in my mind and touched my heart from the beginning. Uh, I'll start with my own, the Barto County Sheriff's office from the time that I found out Tuesday morning that Taylor was injured. I was on shift and they allowed me to leave and go straight to Grady. Um, and I didn't leave until after his passing late, um, or early s he passed late Friday night, early Saturday morning. They never questioned, they never asked me to come back. They never, they offered everything and I'm just forever grateful. Um, Carroll County Sheriff's office, uh, the agency and the people inside of it are always gonna hold a special place in my heart. I'm, I'll always be indebted, indebted to them for my restart and law enforcement. They've treated me like family, but most importantly, taken care of. Taylor's found me from the moment that, uh, before Taylor's helicopter even landed, everybody should know that the Fulton County Sheriff's office, Atlanta Police Department, um, Clayton County Sheriff's office, Georgia State Patrol. Uh, so many others were there, like I said before, he even got there and they stayed there hours days throughout the week. We didn't have to wait, want or need anything other than to just hope that Taylor was gonna be ok. I think that I can speak on b for the whole family when I say that, uh, we'll be forever grateful for that when people pass away everyone, uh, you know, someone can commit the most heinous crime and the news media will pick out a family member and no one deserves to pass away or to die. I'm not, I'm not at all insinuating that, but this person could be one of the worst people that walk the earth in the minute. Someone interviews a family member or friend. They say, oh, he was so great. He was so loved, he cared for everyone. And I'm not saying that those things aren't true in some circumstances surrounding that person. But when I say it about Taylor, um, it's 100% true. I only had him in my life for five years. Yeah. But they've been filled with so many fun times when I met him, I had just gone through the most trying time of my life and my law enforcement career and after about a nine month absence due to a mistake that I made, Sheriff Langley gave me a chance and I got back into law enforcement. I was extremely nervous. I had all kinds of emotions running through my body and my mind. And as I made my way into the patrol room after my first day on day shift, I was hired just before Thanksgiving, the night shift was coming in. Well, everybody that knows Taylor knows that he, and this is not at all making fun of him. He knew it. Everybody knew it, knew it. But Taylor had the most unique walk of any person that I've ever seen in my life. It was almost like it frustrated him to have to do it. Like, it just took every amount of effort in his body to get 15 ft across the room. And he was not going to get in a hurry for nobody. When I seen him walking in before I ever even talked to him though. I said that boy walks funny and then I went and he was leaving work. He had gotten off and I went and did my day shift my little short, little fto time with a day shift trainer. And then I came in that evening and everyone else left and I was trying to wrap up and I was over at the computer and all the night shift guys had already left and, you know, I was about to go home and Taylor walked over and said, what are you doing? Just like that? And his voice never changed. It was always one tone very low. And, um, I said, I introduced myself and explained that I was trying to figure out the computer system and also that I just had a nervous day because I was trying to get back in the swing of things. And the only thing he said to me, he never told me his name or nothing. He just said, well, tomorrow's Thanksgiving. So we should get some good food brought up here and the dogs play Saturday. So there's nothing to worry about. And he just turned around and said my badge number 943 holler at me if you continue to stress about the non important stuff and actually need something. And he walked, he walked out and I thought to myself, I swear, I said there's something wrong with that dude. And I was like, that's the same boy I saw yesterday walking funny and now he's in here talking nonsense. And so shortly after that, I was assigned a night shift and we worked together on the regular patrolling neighboring zones and eating at cook out every single night on South Park Street in Carrollton. And listening to him talk about football stats because that's the only thing that was important. I learned more about Waycross, Georgia than Wikipedia could tell you. And I learned that even though Waycross didn't know it, nor did one single person down there elect him. Taylor was. In fact, the mayor, our friendship grew stronger and quickly trans transitioned into us. Spending our off days together. I got to meet his now wife, my other best friend, Lissa. I got to be a part of two kids lives. No. And Bella who have done nothing for the last five years. But give me absolute excuse me, God Hall, they're not his blood Children, but he loved them like they were from that moment on. And for the last five years, our little friend group has been inseparable camping trips, taking the boat on the lake, random trips to Atlanta and staying in hotels for no reason because I'm just sporadic and don't have any justification for it. Go to Las Vegas. And then the one trip that ticked Taylor off the most was our 2023 trip to Mexico. The fact that he had to get a passport and provide the federal government with any more of his information was the biggest sin that I could have ever asked of him. It was such a sin that he waited until six weeks before the trip to even file for it knowing that the post office sucks. We argued and argued about that. He was such an introvert. He would never be the one to start major conversations with anybody. He would never plan a trip. In fact, he wouldn't plan anything. He was carefree, humble and he did not stress about a single thing on earth. I always envied him for it and was jealous of him for it. But I didn't let him know that because I was always trying to speed him up and I hate things to not be planned. Ok, when we got him away on those random escapades with us though, he loved them. I told him one day, I said, you might as well get over it because if you're friends with me, you're gonna see the world. And he told me, he said, well, the day you plan a stupid trip, our friendships ended, I quickly found out though that on all those trips and I wondered if I should talk about it in a church, but it is what it is. This is who we are and who we were. But the key to get any stubborn, hardheaded, shy, introvert to open up was tequila. Now, it had to be the rock tequila because Taylor was still a kid at heart. You know, he, he went to college on a wrestling scholarship at Bruton Parker and he reminded you of it every week. If you were at his house, it didn't take long if you walked into their large laundry room because he still had what Lisa causes leotards hanging up and he hated it and would correct you on the name of him. But he loved wrestling when he was a kid. We argued about that just because that's just not my thing. We had a lot in common when it came to sports and stuff, but things like that. I just so I would always give him heck about the fact that he loved that stuff so much. But Tequila, as long as it was the rocks, Tequila did the trick. And I quickly learned after about two or three shots of that Taylor was anything in the world because he now played the guitar if you didn't know it. He was the offensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons and that if we could just get Alex Anthopoulos, his phone number, the general manager of the Braves, he knows that every year that he'd contact him before the trade deadline, he would argue with a brick wall and he would never admit when he was wrong. I told everybody a little story last week and it's so true that I could tell Taylor that that speaker right there was black. And if he was just in one of his moods where he wasn't feeling like compromising, he would say no, it's not, it's charcoal. And I we would argue about it for 30 minutes and then the Lord could literally open up the sky and say Taylor, my son, that speaker is black and Taylor would literally go alright. Well, as soon as God disappeared, he'd be like, well, it was charcoal yesterday. He was not gonna let you know that he was wrong. I know that he would go to the ends of the earth though to make sure that our friendship was still alive and that I had what I needed. The same went with his family about a year and a half in our friendship. He finally started opening up and we'd learn more and more about each other. And he actually had a few times where he was when I say emotional, I don't mean crying, just sharing things that I never thought he would ever share with me. He was so, so proud of Lissa. And I think that every, everybody knows it. He thought that she was the most beautiful thing that walks the earth very few times that they had what we can call big arguments, but he would call me and the, and when the phone call, when I answered, he would start it with, well, Liz is pissed at me and I knew it was time that I had to counsel him. He told me that she was his dream girl and that he had to fix it every time he made her mad. And then he'd say, well, I'd tell him what he needed to do and he wasn't gonna do it. And he'd say, well, maybe she'll forget about it tomorrow and be all right. And that's what he would do. He would just wait until tomorrow. I said Taylor, you finally sucked her in 10 years ago by sliding into her D MS with, hey, beautiful. If you can just find the words like, I'm sorry, you'll probably have it fixed today. But he was so hardheaded, but I think she knew that he was sorry because he was just such a humble person. Taylor didn't like confrontation at all and I don't mean in his job, but he wanted his family and his friends to get along and love each other. He hated when they didn't. He hated any kind of spats or any kind of disagreement. He just wanted it to just be fixed and just go away. He's proven that he didn't mind confrontation at work, I believe. And I think he proved that Tuesday morning again, he was the most stubborn person, but also the most caring. I always told him that his obsession with the Georgia bulldogs was to a point that he needed to seek mental health treatment for it because we stood in 100 degree heat in black suits in late July in 2022 miserable because he refused to have a wedding in the fall and he would not compromise with it. We wanted to go to George Strait and the concert was on a Saturday and Taylor literally, we said Taylor, let's just go. You can miss one game. And he said, I'm not going and I'm done talking about it and I don't understand why in the hell George Strait would plan a concert the same day as Georgia football. And I said, well, as if the king of country considers his concert dates on the dates of your football program. He was serious about it though. We were polar opposites when it comes to personality and I consider myself an extrovert, but we both love the Atlanta braves, our families and our jobs. He was one of the smartest people I've ever met in my life. And his dream was to be an investigator. He told me from not one that, that's what he wanted to do. That's the whole reason why he gotten this lot of work and you could tell home patrol he had absolutely no desire to be out there. He did it though. He talked about cases he was going to solve before he ever even got promoted. He told us time and time again in that Taylor voice, I'm gonna catch murderers, hide and watch. And what I learned is I already told y'all, Taylor was anything after tequila shots. So what I wish I would have told Carroll County is they would have somehow been able to allow that their C ID division would have 100% solvability rate. I know that he's going to be so proud when Noah makes the middle school baseball team And when Bella is the valedictorian of her graduating class because she's the smartest girl on earth. I talked about how he didn't stress and how he was carefree. But when he was at work and as a, as an investigator, I know that he gave it his all. What I'm envious of. And I think I shared this with somebody the other day is that if the captain came to him at 456 in the afternoon and said Taylor, there's 17 more cases on your, on your load. And I'm sorry. And I need seven of these solved by tomorrow's end. 456. Taylor's gonna go. Yes, sir. Captain and clock out at five and drive home in a shiny new Jeep and then ask li on the way, what she's making for dinner, nothing bothered him and he was not gonna let work or anything get in the way. And as we all know, in law enforcement, it's not very common for someone to be like that, but Taylor literally could turn the job off the minute he walked out of the door. You would have never known he was a police officer if he didn't tell you and you, he truly was not ever stressed them cases. He would say could get what he would get to them tomorrow. And like his mama said, when they were on the phone with each other in the morning's time and she would say, son, aren't you late and he would just say, well, they ain't gonna miss me because he'd get there at 904 to 915 to his nine o'clock job. But we found out that we, in fact, do miss him. I've learned to respect how he was even more now that he's gone. And I wish I would have told him instead of always being on his case about it. I'm just glad that he wasn't stressed during his final days. Then I don't understand how it could be because his last meal with Lissa, she hand fed him a grilled cheese. Taylor was so spoiled. I love grilled cheese too. But I just, I bet they're even better when you don't have to lift a finger to eat it. I discovered things about him over our friendship that I would have never imagined. And I've never told anyone there's no reason to. But one small thing that just really blew my mind is when I found out that he enjoyed to read, I was helping him with something one night and I found books in his patrol car two and one was on history. And I just, I picked him up and looked at him and he looked back at me like I was the idiot and was like, I can read. And I said, I understand that, but I just didn't know that you did. He said, well, I don't, unless my phone's about to die and I can't watch football stats. But uh talking about books, a quote from Ernest Hemingway stuck with me and I think it's fitting for Taylor. Every man's life ends the same way. It's only the details of how he lived and how he died, that distinguished one man from another and Taylor, he truly died uh saving and protecting those he loved. He had a huge heart. He truly did not want people to hurt. And I know that he's looking down today, still smiling because he accomplished his goal on Tuesday morning because I know that we don't know all the details about that and this ain't the place to talk about it. But Taylor protected the victims in those crimes, whatever that guy was doing, he'll no longer be, be able to do it. I feel like I may not be talking enough about our times together. But just to be quite honest with you, most of the stories that we have are probably too colorful for this church. The endless laughs, the miles driven, the miles flown and you should have seen him on an airplane and all the different things that we've seen together. But the most important thing is I just wanted to paint just the smallest picture to let everyone know that didn't know him outside of work. What type of person he was. I wanna share just another quick poem with you all that I thought also relates to him. It is written by Major Michael Davis o'donnell. If you are able save them a place inside you and save one backward glance when you are leaving for the places they can no longer go. Be not ashamed to say you love them though. You may or may not have always take what they have left and what they have taught you when they're dying and keep it as your own. Taylor. You were one of my best friends that I've, that I've ever had five years or not. You impacted my life forever. I promise you that I'll always look out for Alyssa and the kids and your family if they ever need anything of me. And I never told you, but I really am sorry for betraying you and graduating from Alabama. Now that I don't have to hear your mouth about it, I'll say that. Although I do wish I could hear you whether you're arguing me without about a sports stat or anything else. I would take it 10 times again. You'll forever be a part of me and I love you.