EL DORADO COUNTY, Calif. — El Dorado County Deputy Brian Ishmael was killed in the line of duty on Wednesday while investigating reports of a theft at a marijuana farm.
Ishmael grew up in the same community he served as a sheriff's deputy in El Dorado County.
"He was never a follower, he was more of a leader," said Sandra Campbell, Ishmael's former bus driver.
Campbell knew Ishmael long before he ever wore a badge.
"I drove him, he was my kid. I took care of him on the way to school and on the way home," she said.
She watched him grow up, driving him to school everyday from elementary to middle school.
"[He] never caused any problems, always polite, had lots of friends, never caused any problems at all. I'm sure the teachers would say the same as well. He was just an all-around good boy," she said.
Campbell continued to be a bus driver for more than 30 years and even after that, she stuck around town, where every so often she would run into Ishmael's family.
"It didn't surprise me when his dad told me he was in law enforcement, didn't surprise me at all, because that's the good kind of person he was," she said.
But Wednesday morning, she woke up to the worst possible news.
"I turned the TV on and that was the first thing that was there and right away I knew it was Brian because of his last name," she said.
Within hours, flags flew at half-staff above his alma mater, Ponderosa High School, just 15 minutes away from the El Dorado County Sheriff's Office he served.
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"I mean, I hurt just for the family and for the fact that you know, he's gone, he's no longer going to be with his children, parents, law enforcement," she said.
Inside Ponderosa High, staff pulled out his senior yearbook from the year 2000.
"He must have had an awful lot of love for the community to work for the sheriff's department to go into law enforcement in the community that he lived. That just shows you what kind of person he is," she said.
It is a big loss for his wife and three kids left behind, his brothers and sisters at the El Dorado County Sheriff's Office and the entire community in which he grew up.
"He was a good boy growing up and I'm sure he was a great man growing up and he's still so very young. He's going to be missed, a nice person, a very good boy," she said.
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