Cumming unveils replica patrol car honoring slain 1972 deputies

A carefully replicated 1969 Chevrolet Impala that commemorates Forsyth County deputies James William Cantrell and Larry Mulkey made its first public appearance this month, giving Cumming residents a visible reminder of a crime that reshaped the community more than five decades ago. The vehicle will eventually be part of a permanent display at the new Cumming Police Station in the Cumming City Center.

Cantrell and Mulkey were abducted and killed on Jan. 10, 1972, after responding to a burglary call; assailants forced both men into the trunk of a patrol car and fired into it. To date they remain the only Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office deputies murdered by others in the line of duty, though the sheriff’s office records show four additional deputies have died in the line of duty from other causes.

The replica project grew from a personal connection and community fundraising. Mayor Troy Brumbalow said family stories tied his grandfather to the original model and that the original car, long stored outdoors at Evans Wrecker Service, had deteriorated beyond reasonable restoration. “We raised $20,000 to go and buy the car and replicate the original,” Brumbalow said. He estimated restoring the original would have cost “probably $75,000,” so local businesses donated money and labor to build an authentic reproduction that reuses salvageable components. “We just tried to make it as authentic as possible back to the original car,” Brumbalow said, noting the replica uses parts such as the original radio and patrol stickers and even matches the dome light and paint.

Former Sheriff Donald Pirkle, who led the office at the time of the killings, recalled the events that preceded the attack and the small-town shock that followed. “Bill came up to the house on Jan. 9, and he was telling me about a red Mustang that he had stopped with a guy in it with a police officer’s uniform on and he didn’t think a lot about it, even though it was suspicious. He just let it go,” Pirkle said. Pirkle noted that the night of Jan. 10 the two deputies chased a Mustang linked to a break-in at Canongate and that the episode ended “very unfortunate.”

Mulkey, a reserve deputy, helped bring the killers to justice by recording a license plate that led to their capture. Community leaders have continued to honor the two men in recent years; the county renamed two streets in their memory in 2016 and this replica adds a mobile, public-facing memorial to that recognition. “It is a unique tribute, as you look around Forsyth County, there is not a memorial for law enforcement officers,” Sheriff Ron Freeman said, adding that more memorials around the county would be appropriate.

City councilman Lewis Ledbetter, who knew both officers and served on a jury in one of the related trials, said, “Anything you can do for them would be good because they were good people.” The Impala will appear behind Mayor Brumbalow’s Smokey and the Bandit Trans Am at the Fourth of July parade, where Sheriff Freeman plans to drive it. When the city center memorial is completed, the display will include historical information about Cantrell and Mulkey.

For Forsyth County residents, the replica is both a tribute and a prompt to remember a quieter era that shaped modern local policing. The moving memorial offers a tangible site for reflection and for future civic remembrance as the county continues to grow.