Sheriff Joe Crawford (left), Samuel Savilla (middle) and Chief Deputy Sean Snuffer (right) and the commission in the back (Photo: Kanawha County Facebook)

CHARLESTON. W.Va. –A Kanawha County Deputy who was injured in the line of duty last year honored and awarded Deputy of the Year and the Purple Heart Award for his courageous behavior.

Deputy Samuel Savilla after he received Deputy of the Year

Both awards were given out at the Kanawha County Commission meeting Thursday evening.

There were seven nominees for Deputy of the Year, and they were nominated by their superiors for their work that they do for the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Department.

Both awards went to Samuel Savilla, who has been with KCSD for seven years.

Savilla said that he was honored to have been given Deputy of the Year award.

“It is a very honorable thing, especially I’m even honored to even be nominated for it and to get it is just very excited, very rewarding for all of the work you do throughout the year as a deputy,” he said. “But I really couldn’t do it without the help of everybody else from the sheriff’s office, other law enforcement throughout the state, throughout the county, very appreciative of everybody, all my brothers and sisters in law enforcement.”

Savilla was also honored and awarded the first Law Enforcement Purple Heart Award in Kanawha County history after being he was injured in the line of duty in February 2024.

He was responding to a disturbance call at a home in Sissonville at one in the morning, where the caller said that the suspect was being very violent. While on his way to the home, Savilla saw the suspect’s car and the suspect fled which led Savilla into a pursuit of the vehicle which stopped a short time later.

Once the pursuit stopped, Savilla got out of his patrol car and the suspect leaned out his window and fired toward Savilla shooting him in the hand.

Sheriff Crawford said that he was proud of Savilla for his courageous and heroic behavior during the incident.

“During the fight and during the whole incident, he remained cool, calm, his training kicked in, he was able to apply a tourniquet to himself to help preserve his life and he was able to stay cool, calm until we got help their to make the apprehension,” Crawford said.

They were able to arrest the suspect without incident after that.

Savilla said that despite being shot and suffering a life-altering injury, he is proud to come into work every day.

He said that he came back after being shot because of the impact that law enforcement has on the community.

“I find it’s just a rewarding career, being able to see the people that I help every day and them being appreciative of my help and being able to do what I can for them in their time of need,” Savilla said. “It’s just very rewarding to see them very grateful for what I’m able to do and all of us else in law enforcement can do to help them when they need us.”

Despite giving this award to Savilla, Crawford said that he was extremely proud of his entire team.

“I couldn’t tell you how proud I am, I couldn’t be any prouder than all of them because it is a family,” he said.