Errol Toulon, Jr. talks about being the first Black sheriff on Long Island
SUFFOLK COUNTY, New York (WABC) -- Despite his long history serving the public, Errol Toulon, Jr.'s road to becoming the first Black sheriff on Long Island was not without challenges -- both professionally and personally.
"Honored, but heavy is the head that wears the crown," Toulon said.
The 63-year-old decorated law enforcement officer didn't start off that way.
He climbed from the bottom.
Born and raised in the South Bronx, he was a bat boy for the New York Yankees.
"Oh it was fantastic, you know wearing those pinstripes, being in a locker room, they had just won back-to-back World Series championships," Toulon said. "It was an incredible feeling for a 17-year-old kid."
He graduated from Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, before following in his father's footsteps who was a warden on Rikers Island.
"It was very, very challenging, a very violent place and it taught me a lot," he said.
He later landed a spot in Suffolk County as assistant deputy county executive for public safety, before returning to Rikers Island as the deputy commissioner of operations.
He worked for almost three years, until 2017 when he was forced to resign under Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration.
He was unemployed for a year and growing anxious for work.
"I was in a Wendy's in June or July of 2017 and it was a help wanted sign and I was getting ready to apply to be a cashier at Wendy's here in Suffolk County," Toulon said.
But his mother, Alma Toulon, a retired Bronx public school secretary, encouraged him to wait.
"So in September, I was asked to run for sheriff with 53 days to go before Election Day and somehow ultimately I won," he said.
Sheriff Toulon didn't just win the election, he also had to repeatedly win at life, three times to be exact as a cancer survivor."
First, he battled Hodgkin's lymphoma in 1996 and then pancreatic cancer in 2003.
"I really prepared myself for death when I was told that especially about the intricacies of the surgery," he said.
But he beat it, and also later while in office, skin cancer.
Now as a two-term Suffolk County sheriff, he has his eyes set on round three.
"I think for the greater part doesn't matter for political affiliation, doesn't matter of race. I think that a lot of people have seen that I've tried to engage with the community, be transparent. My goal is to keep people safe," Toulon said.
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