Corporal Phillip Michael Deese, 38, was on patrol when an eastbound pickup truck crossed the median of I-26 near the Harleyville exit and slammed into his cruiser head on at 5:20 p.m. Deese and the driver of the pickup, 53-year-old Christopher Burnham Junior of Summerville, both died instantly. Deese’s patrol dog, Sonja, was in the back of his cruiser and also died. The accident caused a chain reaction that involved three other vehicles in the wreck but no one in the other cars were seriously injured. One, a 2006 Sebring, was driven by Desmona Brown, 27, of Johns Island, who was transported to Trident Regional Medical Center in North Charleston. The fourth vehicle was a 2003 silver Mutsibishi driven by Ashley Grimsburg, 20, of Rock Hill. She has two passengers with minor injures. The fifth vehicle was a 2005 Saturn, driven by a 23-year-old, who was not injured. Deese had been a Dorchester County deputy since May 2001 and was named Deputy of the Year by the South Carolina Sheriff’s Association after he and a different police dog, K-9 “Bailey” were both shot during a domestic violence call on April 6, 2003. Deese stopped after he was flagged down by a woman, Ashley Phillips,35, of 105 Monarch Drive who said her husband, Timothy Matthew Phillips, 41, had a loaded shotgun. While he talked to her, her husband emerged from some bushes and started firing wounding Deputy Deese in the face, shoulder and chest but Deputy Deese was able to shoot back from his cruiser. Deese returned fire while he called for backup and an ambulance and reversed his car away from the shooter. Phillips continued shooting into the police vehicle as it backed away, hitting Deese’s K-9 partner Bailey.
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