INDUSTRY – A local priest called sheriff’s deputy Sandy Burke a hero Tuesday after the officer fought a gun away from a suspect trying to evade arrest Monday.

“I do believe that Sandy was protecting my life,” said the Rev. Lewis Glidden, an Anglican priest. “And he will always be my hero.”

Glidden and Burke – both have heart problems – rested Tuesday after the fight.

“I thought I was going to die,” Burke said.

The incident started the day before Thanksgiving when Glidden told police a parishioner had given him forged money orders. The parishioner, who was going by the name Nicholas Burgess, had been doing odd jobs around the house for the 60-something reverend.

“I had no reason to doubt him,” Glidden said. “He came over – he’d done paving, replaced clapboards, help(ed) me with my farm animals. … It’s very hard for me to carry bales of hay because I’ve had three heart attacks.”

“I had no reason to mistrust this gentleman,” Glidden said. But 15 minutes after Burgess asked the priest to cash five U.S. Postal money orders for him on Nov. 22, the bank called to tell Glidden the checks were forged.

When police began investigating, they found that the Nicholas Burgess Glidden they knew did not legally exist.

His name is actually Bert Parent, Burke said. Parent is 38, and has a Jay address.

Burke interviewed Parent, then known to him as Burgess, on Monday, and then went to Industry to arrest him for giving a false name to police.

Parent didn’t want to be arrested. He ran around the side of the house and grabbed a gun that he had hidden. Later, Burke discovered that Parent had stolen the gun from the Glidden – who is also New Sharon’s animal control officer – and had hidden it, along with a knife, when he found out police were coming to arrest him.

Burke and Parent fought for five to eight minutes, Burke said, before Glidden was able to grab the gun away from Parent and put a handcuff on him.

“I thought about shooting him, because I was running out of energy. I’ll be 50 in July. I’m getting tired,” Burke said.

He’s had heart attacks, and wondered if he was strong enough to come out of the fight alive.

“I didn’t want to get shot, and I didn’t want to have to shoot him,” he said.

After Glidden grabbed the gun away from the suspect, Cpl. Nathan Bean arrived and helped get a second handcuff on Parent.

Parent was arrested and taken to Franklin County’s jail on charges of assaulting an officer, simple assault, escape, and on a warrant related to a previous incident in Portland. He made his initial court appearance on Tuesday and was being held on $30,000 cash bail.

Both Burke and Glidden were recuperating Tuesday. “Every muscle in my body hurts – and I work out, too. I try to stay in shape. And this is why, I mean, you never know.”