WARREN — Many Trumbull County sheriff deputies and personnel are mourning the sudden death of deputy Anthony Diehl.

Diehl, 54, a 1985 graduate of Girard High School, died Tuesday. His unexpected death was announced on the Ohio Going Blue social media page. The cause of death is unknown, but the Ohio Going Blue site said Diehl was experiencing chest pain last weekend and had visited a hospital.

“Anthony had done a lot of tasks for the sheriff department, but his most recent assignment was working security over at the Jobs and Family Services offices,” said Chief Deputy Joseph Dragovich.

Dragovich said he remembers first interacting with Diehl at accident scenes when the chief deputy worked for the Ohio State Highway Patrol prior to 2017.

“I would call him a happy warrior, because he always walked around with a smile, willing to help out anyone at the scene who needed anything,” Dragovich said. “He was a good guy who was well liked and well respected. I know there are a lot of sad faces around here because of that and because of the sudden and shocking way he left us.”

Dragovich thumbed through Diehl’s personnel file to find that his father was from Coitsville and his mother was from Girard. After high school he entered the Marine Corps in April 1988 and joined the artillery forces in the Desert Storm operation to liberate Kuwait in the early 1990s.

“Anthony supervised a 13-man cannon crew and he was in charge of a $300,000 howitzer,” Dragovich said, noting the late deputy had an interest in the martial arts.

After going to the Marion Technical College police academy in 1992-93, Diehl first joined the sheriff’s department in 1996 as a corrections officer and volunteer reserve deputy. He became a full-time deputy in 2000.

“In the jail, he was part of the cell extraction team whenever there was a problem with prisoners. As a full-time deputy, he did the gamut of work for our department,” Dragovich said, noting he interacted with the public in his time working building security.

Deputy John Barhoover, who worked security with Diehl at both the courts and at the Jobs and Family Services offices, spoke about his personal loss.

“Anthony was my partner for the better part of four years. He was my mentor, my best friend and became a part of my family. He protected me on the job and off,” Barhoover said.

Barhoover said Diehl was “the type of person that made coming to work feel like it wasn’t work at all.”

Every morning as Barhoover walked into work, he would be greeted by a big smile and “Good morning Barneyhoover.”

“That was his nickname for me,” he said.

“Barneyhoover” said his partner will be irreplaceable.

“Guys like that, you will miss them,” Dragovich said.

Service information for Diehl was not available.