Marcie Cook

Senior and Outstanding Student award winner Austin Musgrave with Sheriff Joel Richardson and Chief Deputy Dave Thurman.

Four Canyon students were among  the 28 participants from six area high schools who graduated from the Randall County Sheriff’s Academy Thursday.

Senior Austin Musgrave and juniors Cody Fabela, Nikki Juarez and April Crume were honored at the Academy graduation. Musgrave was named Outstanding Student of the Academy, which earned him a trophy and a $300 scholarship to Amarillo College.

“I was honored because we had a really great class, and this has been one of the only classes that started out with the same number that finished,” Musgrave said. “I plan to graduate from college with a criminal justice degree and to either work with the FBI or DEA or another federal agency.”

Fabela has attended the Academy since its inception eight years ago.

“I joined just to learn about what my dad does on a daily basis,” Fabela said. “I plan to go into warrants, just like my dad.”

Musgrave joined when an officer recommended it to him.

“I was interning, and Sergeant Mezgner suggested it to me and showed me a video from the last year’s Academy,” Musgrave said. “When I saw the video, there were a lot of hands-on activities that you can learn from in law enforcement that you wouldn’t be able to learn just reading about it online or from a teacher.”

Fabela said he got to see what a police officer does in real life.

“[The Academy] taught about the actual duties that police officers go through and not what is seen on TV,” Fabela said.

Musgrave said the Academy emphasized a police officer’s character as well as crime analysis techniques.

“[The Academy] really teaches you the character  it takes to have a job in law enforcement and the importance of having integrity,” Musgrave said. “They taught us defense tactics, felony stops, firearms training, CSI, blood testing, fingerprint analysis and many other things.”

Musgrave and Fabela said they gained important insight about their future places in law enforcement.

“It’s a hard job, and it’s not for a lot of people,” Fabela said. “I think if could be a good backup job for me in the future.”

“The biggest thing I took away from it was that I realized where I wanted to be in the next five years,” Musgrave said. “In the next five years, I know I will want to have a job in law enforcement.”