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‘The Moral High Ground’: Lousiana Cop Dies Saving Daughter from Killer Storm… His Third Life Saved Since ’97

April 29, 2011 by Brett Wilkins in The Moral High Ground with 0 Comments

The first time Lieutenant Wade Sharp, a Covington, Louisiana police officer, saved someone’s life was in 1997 when he rushed into a burning apartment to save a man and his dog from certain death.

Ten years later, he did it again– breaking into a burning home and rescuing an unconscious and badly burned resident.

Lt. Sharp saved his third and final life on Tuesday morning on a camping trip in Mississippi with his 8-year-old daughter. They got caught up in the killer storms that have killed some 300 people across the South, with nothing but their tent and Sharp’s strong arms shield them. When he heard the loud cracking of a large tree breaking and falling toward them, Sharp jumped on top of his daughter to protect her as the 125-foot tree crashed down onto the tent.

Sharp was killed; his daughter escaped without a scratch.

“He covered his daughter with his body when the storm came through to protect her. A tree limb fell and hit him in the head, killing him. The daughter was not hurt. She was still at the campground waiting for family to arrive,” Choctaw County, Mississippi Coroner Keith Coleman told WWL.

“He was a hero all the way through his whole career, and was a hero to the end,” Covington Police Chief Richard Palmisano told the New Orleans Times-Picayune. “It’s a huge loss for us,” Covington mayor Candace Watkins said. “He meant a lot to that department. He was extremely valuable to the department.”

The death toll from this week’s devastating tornado outbreak across the South stands at 318, making it the deadliest such disaster since 1932. President Obama visited Alabama, the hardest-hit state, today, where he said “I’ve never seen devastation like this.”