Looking back on an eventful day May 2, 2024, Deputy Mitch Minto has no doubt he experienced a divine appointment that put him in the right place at the right time.
Minto, a deputy with the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office, is also an adjunct instructor in the Anderson University School of Public Service and Administration and, along with his wife Jamie, is working on completing his Ed.D. in the AU College of Education.
Minto feels God has given him a passion for people and feels a calling into the work he does, both as a deputy in the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office and as an adjunct professor at Anderson University.
While patrolling, Minto doesn’t always drive down Centerville Road, but he’s convinced the Lord led him to take that route at that specific time.
“I was coming down Centerville Road and I was talking to my wife, she’s an elementary teacher. We normally talk in the morning and I had to tell her ‘sweetie, I’ve got to go. I see a structure fire. I don’t see any fire department, no nothing.’ So when I called it into my radio, they were unaware of it. I was the first one on scene,” Minto said.
Faced with a locked gate, Minto pulled his cruiser to the side of the road, scaled a fence and ran across the property to reach the burning residence. To further complicate things, he heard explosions as he neared the home. When he reached the house, he noticed toys in the yard, further concerning him that a family with children could be inside.
“Being a Christian and loving the Lord, I don’t fear death. As Christians, we don’t have the fear of death because eternity is forever,” Minto said. “Living on earth is only for so long, but we have our wife and our kids and we just never know whether we’re going to step through that door again. You never know what you’re going to face.”
Minto banged on the door. Hearing no response from inside, he made his way in, though he can’t remember exactly how he got through the door. Once he entered the house, Minto was yelling out to get the attention of anyone inside. He found Holly Montes and her two children and told her “Ma’am, we’ve got to go. Your house is on fire.”
At this point, every second was crucial.
“The flames were coming up and at that moment in time she handed me one child, we grabbed the other and we just took off running,” Minto recalls. “As we’re running, propane tanks are exploding. It almost seemed like a movie—that’s how crazy it was. It’s one of those moments in life where it’s so surreal. We stood in the middle of the field, and my heart just sank with the mother. She’s crying, the kids are upset, and you’re just watching her property burn.”
Montes and her children were now safe but were heartbroken because they lost their dog and newborn puppies in the blaze—except for one puppy that survived, whom the family members named “Deputy Minto” after the man who rescued him.
“I praise the Lord for putting me at the right place and the right time, because if I didn’t show up at that at that time, that fire would have got to the mom and two children,” Minto said.
Anderson County Sheriff Chad McBride awarded Deputy Minto with the Star of Excellence, an award recognizing his outstanding service in the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office Community Patrol.
Serving with Sheriff McBride has been a blessing for Minto in many ways.
“He’s been so influential in my life,” Minto said. “My hat goes off to my department for fostering such a beautiful environment that sparked a lot of passion for teaching. I’ve got to credit Chad McBride… he really ignited in me that ‘yes, you’re a deputy sheriff, yes you love your community, but you’re also good at other things. Go out there and tap into those things.’”
In addition to his duties with the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office, Minto teaches a class in crime scene reconstruction for the Anderson University School of Public Service and Administration. Having a passion for people he approaches not only on duty but in the classroom, Minto wants to go further into teaching. In addition to his class at AU, he also trains rookies as a field training officer at the Sheriff’s Office. His future goal is to go further into education and prepare the next generation of law enforcement professionals.
Though Minto is surrounded by classmates who work in schools, he’s committed to advancing professionally as an educator and is most of the way through his Ed.D. program at Anderson University.
Minto’s Ed.D. research focuses on how virtual reality (VR) is used in the training of officers, all the way from young rookies to senior veterans. Specifically, his research gauges the effectiveness of VR-driven training in improving officers’ skills in situational awareness and community-oriented policing.
“Mitchell has contributed so much already to our Doctoral program. He brings in expertise from his law-enforcement background and merges it with the educational leadership knowledge that he is learning in our program,” said Dr. Julie Smart, director of the Doctor of Education program at Anderson University and associate professor of graduate studies. “He is a true leader in our program and his peers look up to him and the ways that he contributes to both his local community and our Anderson community. I have the privilege of serving as Mitchell’s dissertation chair and his research will be focused on exploring ways to improve training for law-enforcement officers using virtual reality. His commitment to this line of research and his vision for how it could positively affect law-enforcement training has been inspiring. Mitchell is going to do great things in the world and we are excited to see how he continues to grow and develop as both a student and a scholar. He makes us all very proud.”
“I’ve got some big aspirations,” Minto said. “Having such a supportive wife, she’s in the same program. She’s such a lovely wife. We’ve been married 12 years now and have two beautiful children. She’s my best friend. She’s my biggest supporter and she’s always telling me to chase my dreams and go big.”