Honor Roll

Dennis M. “Skip” Sullivan

Shasta County sheriff’s deputy Dennis M. Sullivan was killed Saturday, October 10, in a traffic accident while on his way to negotiate with a reportedly armed woman barricaded in a Mountain Gate home.

Sullivan, 41, of Shingletown died instantly in the 2:45 a.m. accident, the California Highway Patrol said.

He had been with the Sheriff’s Department since 1981.

“He was a good deputy, a good man to have with you,” Undersheriff Jim Pope said this morning.

Pope said the Sheriff’s Department is “trying to hang in there,” following the shock of Sullivan’s death.

The accident occurred on Highway 44 east of Shingletown. Sullivan was headed west near Inwood Road when the trailer of an eastbound truck tipped over onto his small pickup, a CHP spokesman said.

Sullivan had tried to avoid the trailer by moving to the extreme right side of the road, the CHP said.

The impact of the collision sheared the top off the pickup and forced the truck to go off the highway on the north side, the CHP reported.

The truck driver, Steven Poggie, 35, of Westwood, was not injured.

Sullivan, a member of the department’s hostage negotiation team for four years, was headed for Mountain Gate when the accident occurred. Lt. Dennis Boatner said that situation was a domestic dispute during which neighbors reportedly heard a shot fired, which was unfounded.

Sullivan was a patrol deputy who had been stationed at the Palo Cedro sheriff’s substation since March. Prior to that he was a resident deputy in the Shingletown area. He went to work for the Sheriff’s Department after 11 years with the South San Francisco Police Department.

Pope said Sullivan designed and implemented the South San Francisco department’s field training program. As a sergeant there he supervised the operations division, community relations and crime prevention programs, Pope said.

Sullivan was an avid fisherman and hunter.

“I don’t think you’d find a single person in Shingletown who didn’t like Skip. He was a hell of a good guy,” Phil Seberger said.

Survivors include a son and two daughters.