Addie McCluskey
Elmore Autauga News
The Prattville Police Department (PPD) held a press conference on March 20, 2026, to honor Dawson Hewitt, a recent graduate of the Montgomery Police Academy, and his fiancée, Lydia Stovall, a survivor of kidnapping and sexual assault.
PPD Chief Mark Thompson explained the significance of the couple’s story following recent misconceptions about Hewitt.
“Before he went to the academy, there were a lot of negative comments out there on social media about him, but his service is a positive thing,” said Thompson. “He had the heart to push himself to do something he had never done before. It meant something to us that we had a kid who wanted to dedicate his life to law enforcement just because he saw what happened to someone else.”
Hewitt’s fiancée, Stovall, survived a 2022 kidnapping in which a Greenville man took her and her best friend at gunpoint from Walgreens, drove them to Montgomery, and sexually assaulted them. The kidnapper had every intention of taking their lives that day, but fortunately, his weapon malfunctioned. In that moment, faced with unimaginable fear, the two girls bravely convinced him to let them go. The kidnapper, who had recently been released from prison, went on to commit similar crimes in Georgia and kill a woman in Leeds before he was caught about two days later.
“I went through a lot mentally and physically in the span of three hours, more than most 17-year-old girls go through,” said Stovall. “When I met my now fiancé, Dawson, in 2023, he truly helped me perceive life in a different way and kind of gave me something to look forward to and live for. He’s been a big inspiration, and I would love to be able to have his drive and determination to do what he did in order to protect me and my family and other women like me.”
The weight of that experience still lingers, shaping not only how Stovall sees the world, but who she allows into hers. She explained that her story isn’t one that she shares with just anyone. She felt that Hewitt was different — a man who not only treats her with respect and dignity but also does the same for other women, including his mother and sister.
“It’s kind of the way he acted towards me,” said Stovall. “He is a very comforting man, and he is the first person I run to about anything. He just has this energy about him that lets you know you can trust him.”
In 2024, Hewitt attended the trial for Stovall’s kidnapper in support of her and her friend. It was a long and emotional day — one that forced each of them to revisit the darkest moments of their lives — but it ended with justice. The kidnapper was sentenced to eight consecutive life sentences, bringing a measure of closure to a story that could never truly be forgotten and inspiring Hewitt to step up.
“The support and dedication of the Prattville Police Department during this time made me want to do something good for other families the way they had done for mine,” said Hewitt. “On my birthday in 2025, I made a promise to myself to at least try to pass the physical agility test for the PPD.”
Hewitt, who had no specific career plans before he decided to become a police officer, passed the mile and a half run with six seconds to spare, but the minimum standard was not enough for the PPD. Over the next few weeks, PPD Lt. Trey Shanks invested in Hewitt, training him to go above and beyond and pushing him to discover a level of discipline and determination he had never tapped into before.
During the police academy, Hewitt shaved two minutes off his original run time, served as vice president of his class, and graduated with a 95.6% average. In that time, he also found fun in fitness and lost a total of 40 pounds, proving the negative comments wrong and reshaping not only his body, but his purpose.
In his closing comments, Hewitt said, “Even though I may not be able to stop crimes as heinous as what happened to my fiancée, I plan to serve and protect this community with the best of my ability.”
