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Dan Kegley/In 2007 Smyth County sheriff’s deputy Chris Paschal graduated from the Virginia State Police/Southwest Virginia Law Enforcement Academy narcotics dog handling class.

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UPDATED: Smyth County sheriff’s deputy dies

Relief Fund
A relief fund has been set up at the Bank of Chilhowie for the Paschal family.
Checks should be payable to the Deputy Chris Paschal Relief Fund, Bank of Chilhowie, PO Box 1560, Chilhowie, VA 24319

Funeral Services
Visitation for the Chris Paschal family will be Wednesday, Jan. 7, from 1 to 3 p.m. and from 5 to 9 p.m. at Calvary Baptist Church on Matson Drive, Marion. The funeral will be at the church on Thursday, Jan. 8, at 11 a.m., followed by the burial in Westwood Memorial Gardens, Chilhowie. A reception will follow at Joy Baptist Church, Glade Spring. Expressions of sympathy may be sent to the family at http://www.bradleysfh.com. Bradley’s Funeral Home is handling arrangements.

By DAN KEGLEY/Staff

It took forces larger than the power of his dedication to end the service, and then the life, of young Smyth County sheriff’s deputy Chris Paschal.
At age 37, Paschal died Sunday, two days after sustaining critical head injuries in an accident on icy Interstate 81.
He was off duty Friday and traveling with his wife, Kasey, and daughter, Keyleigh, when he saw an accident, one of more than 100 in three counties caused by ice and snow Friday morning. As he telephoned central dispatch to report that accident, police said, the Paschals’ vehicle lost traction on the ice.
The 2001 Mitsubishi SUV “ran off the road to the right, overturned twice and came to rest on its wheels,” said Virginia State Police spokesman Sgt. Michael Conroy.
“He was on the phone with the dispatcher, saying there was an accident, and all of a sudden he advised her he was wrecking. Then he lost contact,” said Smyth County Sheriff David Bradley. “He was ejected.”
That was around 7:45 a.m. Friday at the 40.5 mile marker on northbound Interstate 81, Conroy said.
Paschal’s wife and daughter escaped injury.
An online blog maintained by Mike Paschal from North Carolina said in a 5:59 p.m. Friday posting that “My older brother was in a car accident this morning in the mountains of [Virginia]. Chris was thrown out the sun roof of the vehicle.”
Paschal was taken to Smyth County Community Hospital and transferred by ambulance to Bristol Regional Medical Center.
Weather conditions kept medical evacuation helicopters grounded. “Med-Flight was unable to come up, and we understand that,” Bradley said. Mike Paschal’s blog posted regular updates that provide a narrative of hope and ultimately of grief over the following hours. Just seconds after the initial posting came this: “They have stopped the bleeding and are prepping him for surgery now… this is good news.”
Posted at 8:38 Friday evening (with typographical errors corrected): “Chris just got out of surgery and he is recovering right now… he is still in ICU and they have not closed up his head just yet. They are watching him right now. Doctors say it is up to him and God right now how well his body heals. He is responsive and able to move hands and toes and squeeze his wife’s hand when she says “I Love You.“
1:03 a.m. Saturday: “Just talked to my younger brother who is up there right now. He said it was hard seeing him in the ICU, but he feels like he is going to pull through. He is sleeping right now from the heavy sedation he is on, but things are looking OK right now… thanks for continuing to pray!”
1:42 a.m. Saturday: “My father just called and Chris started to actually take breaths on his [own]! He is still on a respirator, but him breathing slowly on his own is a BIG sign! So once again… KEEP PRAYING!! God is listening right now to you guys.”
2:03 p.m. Saturday “Woke up this morning to a bad phone call. Chris is running a bad temperature, blood pressure is way down, and they lost him early but CPR brought him back. They are running tests right now to see if fluid is getting to his brain. We are heading up to VA now
And then, at 1:25 a.m. Monday: “I hate to type this… around 4:30 today my incredible brother Chris Paschal passed away. He is in Heaven.” And a few seconds later: “Chris was the greatest husband, father, son, and brother anyone could ask for. I hope I become the husband and father he was.”
“He was an outstanding officer,” Bradley said. “Dedicated 110 percent. He loved his job and was ready to go at any time.”
So much did he love it, he refused to take time off after an on-duty collision last fall. Fellow K-9 officer Alan Morgan recalled that after a car turned left into the path of Paschal’s cruiser, “he was at work the next day. He was sore and stiff, but he told me, ‘I had to get back to work.’”
Paschal was in the sheriff’s office for eight years, during which time “he wanted to do it all,” the sheriff said.
Paschal started out as a road officer and added membership on the Dive Team and, last August, the Sheriff’s Emergency Response Team. SERT is a specialized unit of 10 deputies with intensive training for responding to hostage situations and barricaded persons, executing search warrants on major drug cases, and serving high-risk warrants, the sheriff’s office Web site said.
In 2007 Paschal and Ben, his K9 partner, graduated from the 13-week Virginia State Police/Southwest Law Enforcement Academy narcotics dogs handling class, adding that service to his repertoire of law enforcement and public service skills.
“It takes a very motivated individual to do this job,” said Paschal’s then-sergeant, Capt. Mike Hounshell, after the graduation.
“He loved that dog,” Bradley said Monday. “That dog was his livelihood.” The sheriff said Ben was highly ranked for his abilities. “That was Chris working with him. A hundred and ten percent.”
If his career blossomed under Bradley, it was Saltville Police Chief Steve Surber who gave Paschal his start in police work. “All I can ever say is good about him,” Surber said Monday.
“I hired him Nov. 1, 1999,” Surber said as he thumbed through Paschal’s file in the Saltville PD headquarters, a file he said that held no complaints about the rookie officer who was eager to learn about police work.
“He would listen” when he was out riding with other officers. “He wanted to learn.”
“He was a student of this profession,” Hounshell said. “He was always striving to learn everything that could be learned.”
Surber said Paschal never forgot where he started.
“I kept up with him,” Surber said, “and he never forgot us.” In fact, Surber said Paschal took Ben to Saltville to help police work a case two days before the accident.
Surber took Paschal’s death hard. “It just breaks my heart. I’ve not slept a good night since this happened.”
Paschal’s ejection from the vehicle Friday called into question whether he was wearing a seatbelt, and both his chief and his sheriff were confident that he was. He likely removed it in preparation to be of service at the accident, Surber and Bradley said.
“I believe in my heart that he unsnapped his seatbelt either to get to his phone or to get out when he stopped,” Surber said. Bradley said when his officers arrive on scene, they’re ready to go to work.
His fellow deputies struggled with their loss Monday afternoon.
“It’s hard to see the good in this,” said Tony Powers, “but we’ve seen how close we are, how much we love each other. We’ll miss him for a long time.”
“As his supervisor I can honestly say there was nothing negative about him,” Hounshell said. Hounshell looked around the room and recalled the accident Friday. “If it had been me or you, you, you or you, Chris would be there.”
Michael Lowe said Paschal was “a family man in every sense of the word,” and a man of deep faith.
In addition to his wife and daughter, Paschal is survived by a son, Tanner. “You never talked five minutes with him that he didn’t say something about his son,” and Hounshell said he had his daughter with him as much as he could.
Powers said Paschal “was a great friend, a great person, a great husband, a great Christian, a great father, a great man. If you want to great all day, we can.”
Morgan said Paschal’s death “created a hole here we can’t fill with 20 people, 40 people. There are not enough adjectives to describe the good he created around him.”
That good began with Paschal’s community service that went back to before his law enforcement career started. He was a volunteer with the Chilhowie Rescue Squad when it was separate from the fire department.
And Robbie Whitley pointed out Paschal’s service has not, in fact, come to an end.
“He was an organ donor,” Whitley said. “Others will gain from our loss.”
Court clerks started working Monday to clear the court dockets to allow deputies to attend the funeral. Sheriff Bradley said Monday officers from other law enforcement departments in the area were volunteering to cover deputies’ duties. Marion Police Chief Mike Roberts told Marion Town Council members Monday night his officers were among those helping. He said deputies had done the same for them last year.
Paschal’s death continued what some police officers called a hard year for Smyth County officers. Last January, the community along with police were shocked by the suicide of Marion Police Sgt. Keith Clark while he was on duty on a Saturday afternoon. In February, VSP Trooper Kris Chapman was critically injured when a drunk driver crashed his Ford F-150 pickup into Chapman’s cruiser while he was working a traffic stop on the interstate at Seven Mile Ford.  Chapman returned to full-time duty in October.
Paschal, deputies said, responded to the trooper’s crash scene and was at the hospital as Chapman fought for his life. Chapman, they said, was at the hospital to support Paschal and his family.
The trooper was joined by many people united in the hope for Paschal’s recovery. Deputies said along with numerous Smyth Countians who knew Paschal were Bristol residents and others who may or may not have known Paschal but who showed up at the Bristol, Tenn., hospital in a vivid display of widespread support. Among them was a strong representation of the region’s law enforcement community.
“I was never so happy to be a policeman as I was yesterday morning,” Whitley said Monday. “There were well over 100 policemen down there at 7 in the morning.”
That outpouring of support was not lost on Mike Paschal. His Web posting announcing his brother’s death said, “He touched more lives than I knew.”
There was something about Chris Paschal the officer himself did not know. Before his death, Hounshell and the sheriff were planning Paschal’s promotion.
“He’ll be promoted to corporal posthumously,” Hounshell said.