Chief salutes Bay St. Louis police officers killed at Motel 6
Bay St. Louis Police Chief Toby Schwartz stepped to the microphone at a 10 a.m. press conference Thursday and said he was there to remember and honor two police officers who died Wednesday.
Sgt. Steven Robin, 34, and Officer Branden Estorffe, 23, were shot and killed Wednesday when they responded to a welfare call outside the Motel 6 in Bay St. Louis.
“I’m not here to discuss the details of yesterday’s tragedy,” he said. Instead, Schwartz said he was there to discuss the lives of “two heroes that sacrificed their lives for the good of society.”
He asked for prayers for all law enforcement officers.
“This is real tough for the law enforcement community,” he said, and hard for the officers’ families.
“It hurts, it hurts bad. It hurts across the MS Gulf Coast,” he said.
Also pray for the children and family of the assailant, he asked.
“They, too, are victims,” he said “They too will need the love and the support of their community.”
The police department is working with the families on funeral arrangements for the officers, he said, and will release that information soon.
The officers were called to the Motel 6 around 4:30 a.m. Wednesday. They spoke for about 30 minutes to Amy Brogdon Anderson, 43, a veterinarian from Ocean Springs.
She was identified by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation as the woman who fired the shots before she died of a gunshot wound to the chest. A child under the age of 10 was with Anderson in a brown Toyota Highlander.
Robin has been in law enforcement since 2010 and joined the Bay St. Louis force in 2019. He is a husband, father and grandfather, he said.
“He knew it was his job to make good cops out of young rookies,” the chief said.
Estorffe joined the force in July 2021, following in his father’s footsteps. He was surrounded by other police officers, “All of whom would watch out for him, keep him on the straight and narrow,” Schwartz said.
Both men were “trusted colleagues and outstanding officers,” he said.
This story was originally published December 15, 2022 at 10:48 AM.
