A Letter From Alex Cobb

“Thanksgiving Day, 1997 - A Story about Banks Hinceman”

Written March 22nd, 2022

“I am writing this letter in support of Banks Hinceman for Sheriff of Burke County in the upcoming 2022 election. I have been blessed to work in Burke County law enforcement a few months short of 50 years and have been a reserve deputy at the Burke County Sheriff’s Office since 1987. My first 30 years of active duty were spent at the Morganton Department of Public Safety and the last 9 years at the Burke County Narcotics Task Force. The past 11 years have been spent providing training to Law Enforcement, Military, and civilian personnel. I was blessed to work ten and one-half years with GLOCK Professional and had the opportunity to train law enforcement officers in 47 US states and several foreign countries. I am currently working as a law enforcement firearms trainer in another role.

I was fortunate in the mid-1990s to work with a group of talented firearms instructors and collectively we developed an Officer Survival training agenda for our department. I was able to take that agenda to Western Piedmont Community College and share it with officers from other agencies. Deputy Banks Hinceman was a student in one of those classes. In one of the scenarios, we gave officers a location with two street names to remember, we pushed them through a series of stressful decision-making situations, and finally ended with them simulating a radio call to dispatch to provide critical information. Another aspect of the training simulated an injury to the officer’s gun hand, and they were forced to load and fire each weapon with only their support hand. 

In the following months, Deputy Hinceman was promoted and became Sergeant Hinceman. 

On Thanksgiving Day, 1997, I was working my day shift rotation the same day Sergeant Hinceman was working his shift at the Burke County Sheriff’s Office. In the late part of the shift, a Deputy was dispatched to a disturbance call involving someone shooting at a residence. I heard Sergeant Hinceman radio his intent to provide back-up to the Deputy. Shortly after Banks’ arrival on the scene, I heard the other Deputy make the call you never want to hear: “Burke County—Officer Down”. The dispatcher asked Banks “141, did you copy?”, to which he replied to dispatch that he had been shot. 

In recent years, I have been able to present Officer Survival Training which I helped develop at Annual Conferences of the International Association of Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors in Amarillo, Texas, Mobile, Alabama, and West Palm Beach, Florida, to law enforcement firearms instructors from around the world. I was fortunate to be allowed to get a copy of the recorded audio of Banks’ shooting and I have used his calm communications and his deliberate actions as an outstanding example of how to respond to, and handle the trauma of this type of event. His example is used to train officers to realize what they are capable of doing in similar circumstances. 

I heard Sergeant Hinceman, who now had 5 high-powered rifle wounds to his body, calmly take control of the situation and convey critical information to dispatch and other officers. Banks had exchanged shots with the individual who was initially the focus of the call. In this exchange, Banks was wounded 5 different places on his body by multiple shots from the 7.62 mm SKS rifle the individual fired at him from close range. The individual was wounded in the leg by the one-shot Banks was able to fire before his duty handgun was disabled by the first shot fired at him, or by the other deputy. It was never determined which officer fired that round. (The individual retreated into the house after being wounded.) The first rifle round hit Banks’ gun hand, rendering his duty weapon inoperable and severely damaging the middle and ring fingers of his right hand. Due to two more wounds on his body, it is speculated that the bullet which hit his handgun fragmented and caused those wounds also. One part of it struck his ballistic vest just above the belt buckle and caused severe bruising (it did not penetrate the vest), another fragment hit his left arm between the wrist and elbow, and a third fragment entered the bicep of his right arm. At this point, his left arm is wounded, and his right arm and hand are so severely wounded he had no ability to use them. Another rifle round struck Banks’ chest above the right pocket of his uniform shirt. This round hit his nameplate, penetrated his ballistic vest, made a golf ball size hole in his chest, traveled around his body on the outside of his ribcage, and stopped under his right shoulder blade. 

That bullet remains in his body today. At this point, Banks got up from the ground and moved to the trunk of his car to retrieve a secondary weapon (rifle or shotgun).

Despite having 5 serious wounds, Banks calmly directed responding officers to his location, and as they arrived, placed them in tactical positions. At one point, he is heard calmly telling an officer “You need to move back from there, take cover”. 

Only after enough backup officers arrived on the scene and he felt they had enough help, Banks walked a quarter of a mile to the waiting ambulance to keep the medics out of the danger zone. Once he reached the hospital emergency room, Banks radioed his fellow officers and told them he was ok and thanked them for their prayers. (That is recorded in the radio data.) In my video interview with him just a couple of years ago, Banks said “I knew I had a job to do and I had to put all that pain aside and get to work. I knew I had to prepare those officers for what they faced when they got there”. That is WHO Banks Hinceman is!

I have used his example and performance in this incident to teach the Officer Survival principles in Basic Law Enforcement Training for many years and will use it in the current academy in two weeks. I have not found a better example for this purpose. Banks is a humble man, and he will never mention this incident unless you ask him about it. Banks, as a firearms instructor, continues each year to teach officers the skills needed to survive such traumatic incidents. He is a “hands-on” leader and is a very effective instructor because of his teaching style and his example.

I have worked with Banks in a variety of dangerous and high-stress incidents for many years, and I have never seen him waiver from the calm, professional, common-sense approach that he is noted for. He is not a perfect man. There was only one of those. He is, however, a true professional and after serving 32 years at the Burke County Sheriff’s Office, serving in every rank from Deputy to Chief Deputy he has the right experience to lead the Burke County Sheriff’s Office into the future.

— Alex Cobb

Over 49 Years of Law Enforcement Experience in Burke County

A Letter From Center Burke Endorsing Banks Hinceman

Center Burke is a bipartisan group based in Burke County. We work across party lines to provide information about, and support for, candidates who will positively impact our county and promote a thriving community.

Our group consists of individuals in our community who want to support candidates that have the best interests of ALL Burke County citizens in mind. Center Burke members include Republicans, Unaffiliated, Democrats, Libertarians and some who consider themselves none of the above! We base our support of candidates on bi-partisan input, background research and conversations, and interviews with candidates. We have supported both Republicans and Democrats.

We have been asked why our group values confidentiality. We provide an opportunity for citizens in Burke County to be engaged in politics without revealing their identity, as we find that important in a small community. While some members of the Center Burke team have shared their identity, we give everyone involved the right to remain anonymous. We attempt to balance anonymity with transparency and for this reason we remain open to having conversations with individuals in the community who would like to reach out to us to engage in civil dialogue.

For the May 17, 2022, Primary we are happy to announce our endorsement of Banks Hinceman for Sheriff. This decision comes after a thorough process led by the core Center Burke team that included outreach and conversations with both candidates.

We are excited to endorse Banks for several reasons. Below we outline those reasons and highlight some of the responses Banks submitted to us during our interview process:

• Experience: Banks has been in law enforcement for 32 years and has consistently been placed in leadership positions and given recognition for fulfilling his duties as well as going above and beyond the call of duty.

“I started my law enforcement career at the Burke County Sheriff’s Office and have moved through the ranks from the ground up. I truly love the Sheriff’s Office and I consider it a blessing to have served the citizens of Burke County for 32 years.”

• Dedication: We particularly admire Banks’ dedication to his fellow Deputies at the Sheriff’s Department. He is committed as Sheriff to advocate for better technology, support, and pay for all Sheriff’s Deputies.

“I want to fully staff all our divisions so that deputies can attend training other than mandatory in-service training and can use their earned and well-deserved vacation time. Retaining these employees is paramount. I would work with county leaders and advocate for increased pay for our staff. I would always encourage our employees to follow the chain of command for concerns or issues that they may have, but I would also have an open-door policy for face-to-face communications with staff. I would want all the staff to feel comfortable to come and talk to me about their concerns. The Sheriff’s Office staff have come up with some great ideas.”

• Collaboration: On all fronts, Banks is committed to collaboration. He has demonstrated and plans to continue to work in partnership with other agencies as well as Burke County to advance the Sheriff Department’s priorities. He is also a strong advocate for partnering with the recovery community to address our County’s drug overdose problem. While he believes repeat offenders and traffickers should have strong punishments, he is also committed to getting ahead of drug abuse by helping find the right support for individuals struggling with addiction.

“I want to find programs and organizations that can help people with their addiction to drugs. I believe that if we can help people with their addictions and their dependency to drugs, we can reduce the crime that is associated with drugs. I think that the key is finding the right program for the right person. Changing the habits of addiction can reduce crime as well as reduce the burden to the taxpayer for costs associated with incarceration.”

• Engagement: Banks has expressed his interest in improving relationships with diverse communities in Burke County and to focusing on diversity in recruitment of deputies, detention officers and support staff.

“I believe that the Sheriff’s Office has good relationships with our communities, but there is always room for improvement. It breaks my heart to think that anyone would not trust the Sheriff’s Office. I will take every opportunity to be out in our communities. Face to face interaction is the best. I also think that having representation from all our communities is important. I will take opportunities to go out to community meetings and events to meet our citizens. I want to earn your trust as your Sheriff.”

We hope that others in Burke County who are seeking the most qualified candidate for Sheriff will vote in the upcoming primary. Remember - early voting will take place from April 28 to May 14 at early voting sites. To vote on May 17, the day of the Primary, you will need to vote at your precinct.

Please feel free to contact us by emailing centerburkenc@gmail.com.