Fallen Northern California deputy remembered one year later

ALTURAS, Calif. – The Modoc County Sheriff’s Office is remembering one of its own killed in the line of duty one year ago.

On October 19, 2016, Deputy Jack Hopkins was responding to a domestic disturbance call when he was shot and killed.

“That should’ve been my call,” Modoc County Sheriff Mike Poindexter explained. “Jack happened to be over near dispatch when a call came in and just like Jack, ‘I got this.’ Out the door he went.”

When Sheriff Poindexter heard Hopkins on the radio, “I called dispatch to find out why he wasn’t in court and she told me the call was on so I left immediately in that direction. The short of it is I didn’t get there in time.”

Poindexter said he didn’t know Hopkins was fatally shot when he was rushing over. “All I knew was that Jack Hopkins had not arrived on scene. He had not gone ‘1097’ as we say. So I can only assume he had gone between when I encountered Jack Breiner and the ranch.”

The sheriff and Breiner exchanged gunfire. Breiner was shot and injured by Poindexter, who received only superficial injuries from shattered glass.

Breiner is still in custody awaiting trial.

“Gone, but never forgotten”

Poindexter said he continues to mourn for one of his best deputies, and although he and the department have to keep up with regular their tasks things around the office will never be the same.

This Thursday, the sheriff’s office held a short memorial and a moment of silence to remember him.

The sheriff’s office said Hopkins is “gone, but never forgotten.”