Daughter of Greenville County sergeant killed in 2020 now serves as a deputy in his former agency

The daughter of a Greenville County, South Carolina, sheriff's sergeant who was killed during a 2020 traffic stop is now a deputy with the same agency, patrolling some of the neighborhoods her father once covered, according to a WHNS report distributed by Gray News and carried by WCAX, WIS, WBTV and Valley News Live.

Sgt. Conley Jumper died on Oct. 20, 2020, during a traffic stop on Interstate 85, the outlets reported. He had spent 28 years with the Greenville County Sheriff's Office, most recently working as a K-9 handler and in the school enforcement division.

His daughter, Deputy Cat Jumper, was a pre-law student at Wofford College at the time, with plans to pursue criminal law, according to the report. She said law enforcement had not interested her before his death and that her father had kept the dangers of the job away from the family.

In what WHNS described as her first interview since joining the sheriff's office, she said her change in direction developed gradually in the months after the loss. She credited the support the agency gave her and her mother, and said spending time around its members as a young adult made her feel safe and at home.

She also described letters the family received from residents her father had met while working off-duty jobs, including one from a grandmother who wrote that his willingness to let her grandson play with his dogs had changed how the boy viewed police.

According to the report, Cat Jumper worked for the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division in Greenwood before transferring to the Greenville County Sheriff's Office in 2025. She said residents sometimes notice her name tag and tell her about their encounters with her father.

She said her mother, Sara, was surprised when told about the academy decision but had sensed it was coming. The two mark the anniversary of his death by treating it as an ordinary day, she said.

Cat Jumper said her family had worried that wearing the uniform would make the grief harder, but that it has instead helped. "I'm able to be closer to him in an indirect way," she told WHNS. She added that she tries to treat people the way she would want her father to be treated.

The outlets reported that a school security center in Taylors was named for Sgt. William Conley Jumper Jr. last October, recognizing his roughly 10 years in school enforcement.

Compiled by True News from reporting by WCAX, WIS, Valley News Live and WBTV. Each outlet's original story is linked below.

Originally published by True News: https://truenews.bagleyenterprises.net/stories/442