BURLESON COUNTY, Texas — John Pollock, the Chief Deputy for the Burleson County Sheriff’s Office, announced that he will be retiring from his position in December of this year.
Pollock was shot in 2021 after he attempted to serve a warrant to a suspect in a case, who law enforcement officers located west of Snook.
According to Pollock, he and other law enforcement groups surrounded a residence off FM-60 west of the Snook area in Burleson County on Aug. 17, 2022.
He said that he, along with police, entered the residence as they located the suspect inside.
“I remember everything. I remember every part of it. We briefly see him behind a curtain and when the curtain goes back there’s a gunshot that rings out and instantly, I felt it,” said Pollock.
Texas DPS said that a trooper was also shot during the standoff situation but was later released from the hospital.
According to a Burleson County judge, the suspect, 41-year-old James Matalice Smith of Somerville, was later killed after he fired at officers during the standoff that went through the night into the next morning.
Pollock was rushed to the hospital directly after the shooting and called his wife Rhonda from the ambulance. She said she had called her sister to transport her to the hospital so she could be with her husband.
“I finally decided to ask, ‘Where were you shot?’ and he said in the face…. I called my sister. She had just left the house 15 minutes prior to that…. He didn’t make her promise she wouldn’t drive fast, so she had gotten me to the hospital in record time. He had just gotten there,” she said.
Pollock took several days to recover in the hospital as doctors worked on his jaw as he was treated.
A year later, Pollock said he still thinks about the shooting.
“You know, I do. It’s hard not to," he said. "It’s hard not to go through something like this…. The worst is that…you know you think about your family. I think as law enforcement officers, you know, if something bad happens to us and we die, it’s pretty easy but everyone that’s left behind that’s the toughest part.”
Pollock said his decision to retire from law enforcement at the end of 2022 had nothing to do with the shooting, but he said he felt it was the right time to step away and try something different.