Jumper was 52-years-old, and for 28 of those years he worked as a Greenville County Sheriff’s deputy. On Tuesday, he responded to a call about 3 p.m. on Interstate 85 near White Horse Road to assist other deputies attempting to subdue a man during a traffic stop. He arrived as a scuffle broke out between deputies and the man. Jumper couldn’t disengage from the car as the man drove his car into traffic and Jumper was pinned briefly between the suspect’s car and an oncoming tractor trailer, officials and reports by the State Law Enforcement Division said.

​

Badly injured and being loaded into an ambulance, Jumper gave a thumbs up to deputies, said Greenville County Schools Superintendent Burke Royster, who eulogized Jumper. Jumper had worked as an enforcement officer inside schools for many years.

​

“That gesture embodies the spirit of Conley Jumper, who to the very end was reassuring others,” Royster said.

​

Less than an hour later, Jumper was pronounced dead.

 

“Jump,” as nearly all friends and colleagues called him, was a massive man who stood 6-foot-4 but felt larger. He was a gentle giant with a kind heart and a wonderful sense of humor, Lewis and Durham said Friday.

​

“Jumper was a man who was large, but small enough to fill the thin blue line,” Durham said. “He was a man who we could all look to, to know that this job meant something. Jumper told me one time, he said, ’I’m doing the most important job in the whole sheriff’s office. And he said, ‘If I didn’t believe that, I’d try to be doing the one that I believed was.’”

​

In 2018, Jumper received the Russ Sorrow Award given by Crime Stoppers of Greenville County to one law enforcement officer in Greenville County each year. He’d also received a Letter of Commendation from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and multiple certifications through the North American Police Work Dog Association.

​

He spent more than two decades as a K9 officer with four different dogs. He worked the most with K9 Vinnie, a golden Labrador who performed drug sniffs in schools and of mail at post offices. After Vinnie died in 2018, Jumper became Tango’s handler.