New Scholarship Honors Deputy Rodney Yates After Line-of-Duty Ambush

The newly created Deputy Rodney Yates Survival Summit Scholarship will fund attendance for injured and disabled law enforcement personnel at the upcoming National Law Enforcement Survival Summit. The event, hosted by the nonprofit organization The Wounded Blue, is scheduled to take place in Las Vegas from September 28 to 30. This initiative offers recipients access to specialized wellness resources, peer support networks, and educational programs designed to assist those whose careers were cut short by duty-related trauma.

Randy Sutton, a retired Las Vegas police lieutenant who founded The Wounded Blue, launched the organization after his own career ended due to a stroke. Sutton notes that the public focus on police injuries often wanes long before the actual recovery process concludes. By pairing Yates’s story of recovery with the summit’s resources, the scholarship aims to bridge the gap between initial trauma and long-term rehabilitation, ensuring that officers navigating permanent injuries retain a community of support.