Federal Way Police Cmdr. Kyle Sumpter was honored by the Federal Way City Council for his performance on The History Channel’s reality shooting competition show “Top Shot.”
Federal Way Police Chief Brian Wilson was on hand at the May 15 council meeting to give thanks to his officer for representing Federal Way so well on “Top Shot.”
“If you were to tell me that I was going to have a reality television star in our midst,” Wilson began, getting a round of laughter from the crowd gathered in the council chambers. “It’s my pleasure to introduce Commander Kyle Sumpter.”
Wilson related some of Sumpter’s history, touching on the commander’s time in Tukwila, Bellevue and here in Federal Way. Sumpter began serving with FWPD in October 1996, and has steadily risen through the ranks since.
Sumpter is also a family man, married to his wife, Carol, for 27 years now. In that 27 years, they’ve had three children: Garret, Jake and Kylie. Garret is currently a United States Marine serving in Afghanistan.
More career highlights were shared by Wilson.
Sumpter has been in charge of firearms and deadly force training within the police department. He served as an investigations commander, a patrol commander, and currently, he has been selected by the Valley agencies, including the Port of Seattle, to be the commander of the Valley Officer Involved Shooting Team, which will begin providing service on June 1, Wilson said.
The story of how Sumpter ended up on “Top Shot” was related by Wilson. The sharpshooting Sumpter saw the show in 2011, and felt he should give it a try.
“I was on the treadmill, and I’m watching ‘Top Shot,’ and I’m watching these exercises they’re doing doing, and he says, ‘Gee, I can do that, and I can do this. Maybe I should do something special for my 50th birthday.’ So he applies,” Wilson said.
There were over 3,000 applicants for Season 4 of “Top Shot,” and they narrowed it down to 50.
Sumpter was under a confidentiality agreement during the summer of 2011, and various members of the department kept pressing Wilson to reveal where Sumpter had disappeared to.
“There were times, where I was getting pressure from the our department members saying, ‘Hey you’re the chief, figure out where he is!,’” Wilson said with a chuckle.
Sumpter’s leadership, which is a well appreciated commodity for FWPD, also shined through on “Top Shot,” something that Wilson was happy to observe.
“He has tremendous leadership and integrity in every day he leads our members. And if you watched the show, you would see that leadership come through,” Wilson said. “And ultimately, the red team winner…his final comments coming out of the show, said he couldn’t have done it without Kyle Sumpter’s leadership.”
Sumpter advanced to just short of the goal line on the popular shooting competition show, finishing fifth out of the 18 contestants chosen. His red team protege Chris Cheng, an IT professional who shoots as a hobby, took home the top honors.
The Federal Way Mirror reported weekly about Sumpter’s progress on the reality TV show.
