North Carolina police officer Jordan Sheldon was ‘proud American’ and always ‘first to respond,’ father says

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Blue Lives Lost: Remembering Jordan Sheldon (1987 - 2019)

K9 Officer Jordan Sheldon was shot and killed while conducting a traffic stop on May 4, 2019. Officer Sheldon served for six years with the Mooresville Police Department in North Carolina. He is survived by his parents, sister, brother, and fiancee.

Harry Sheldon says he was sitting outside in Charleston, S.C., one day, enjoying a cup of coffee with his family, when he heard the commotion. His 15-year-old son, Jordan, sprang into action.

A young man near the South Carolina city’s historic Mills House Hotel was “pounding on his girlfriend and she was yelling ‘help!’” Sheldon remembers. Within moments, Jordan “hit him in the jaw” and “knocked him back down,” pressing his knee to the attacker’s throat and warning him to stay put until police arrived.

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Sheldon told Fox News that memories like these about Jordan shows how, since he was a little boy, he was "first to respond.”

Now, 17 years later, Sheldon is mourning the loss of his son, who went on to become a North Carolina police officer — he was gunned down on May 4 in the line of duty, while trying to make what authorities called a “routine traffic stop” just outside of Charlotte.

Jordan Sheldon formed close bonds with the dogs of the Mooresville Police Department 's K9 Unit. (Mooresville Police Department)

Jordan Sheldon, who served with the Mooresville Police Department for six years, was part of its tight-knit K9 unit. Authorities have disclosed few details about his death beyond saying his suspected killer was later found dead in an apartment from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

OFFICERS KILLED IN THE LINE OF DUTY IN 2019

Harry described his 32-year-old son’s killing as “senseless” and “evil.”

Officer Sheldon's police cruiser was decorated after his death. (Mooresville Police Department)

As a young boy growing up in the area, Jordan enjoyed playing soccer, baseball and football. Harry says he came “from a long line of proud Americans,” and had family members who'd served in World War II and the Korean War.

Officer Andrew Beck, who served alongside Sheldon at the Mooresville Police Department, described him during his memorial service in mid-May as a “man who had a glowing heart and the soul of a warrior” — and one who “was scared of nothing.”

“We learned together. We went through troubled times together, dangerous times together,” Beck said. “There is no other better cop than Sheldon, I promise you that. Every day we came in for training, it may have been 97 degrees outside, he pushed us."

Sheldon is survived by his mother, father, stepmother, stepfather, sister, brother and fiancée, among other close relatives.

“You need to know my son was a patriot,” Harry said, emphasizing how he “loved his family, his grandfather that fought on the beaches of Iwo Jima, his family’s heritage and his name.”

Mooresville Officer Andrew Beck described Jordan as a "man who had a glowing heart and the soul of a warrior." (Mooresville Police Department)

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“I’m proud of Jordy and the men and women who poured over his body and tried to keep him alive,” Harry told Fox News.

“We rejoice that Jordy is serving,” he added, and “is walking the beat in Heaven.”