Zachary Charles Russo was born on 9/13/1975 into a blue collar middle class Irish Italian family. His father was a union electrician and his mother worked in the office at the local elementary school. He has an younger brother who runs a commercial appliance repair business and a younger sister who is a school social worker. Zach grew up with the intention of continuing the family business of being an electrician. For his 18th birthday his father surprised him with an apprenticeship with a family friend. After a week or so of this apprenticeship Zach took the countywide police test and several months later got called for the academy. When he told his father that he was going to be a Sheriff's duputy his father and him got into an argument and didn't speak for several years, his father turning his attention to Zach's brother Nick. On June 1st, 1994 Zach Russo was sworn in as a sheriff's deputy trainee. Graduating in December of 1994 Zach was quickly assigned to the patrol division. When the Fort Shannon PD was disbanded in 1997 Zach was reassigned to a steady sector in the dangerous 5 points neighborhood. In July of 1999 Zach would meet Stephanie Whitman while at a coffee shop in Crescent Falls she was working her way through school. In 2000 Zach took the sergeant's test after reaching top pay as a deputy. Later that year Stephanie would tell Zach news that would change their lifes forever. She was pregnant with their first child. Zach quickly proposed and a month prior to announcing the pregnancy they got married at the Forth Shannon courthouse on January 17th 2001. In July of that year Ashley Russo was born. The first few months were hard on the family due to Zach's Irregular hours and Stephanie's school schedule. Zach and Stephanie enlisted the help of his mother to take care of Ashley while he worked and she studied.
In 2002 Zach's Sergeants list number was called and he was promoted to Sergeant. He was assigned to the youth and schools unit coordinating county school resource officers and acting as the point of contact between the schools in the county. This was a position with regular hours and relieved much of the strain and tension in the family stemming from childcare issues. In 2004 Zach had made a connection with the prestigious Arcadia Prep Academy in the course of his duties. They had mentioned that they had a opening in the admissions department after Zach mentioned Stephanie had recently gotten her masters in Educational administration. Zach told Stephanie and she quickly applied and got the job. In early 2005 Stephanie found out she was pregnant again. The family decided to purchase their first house in crescent falls to support their growing family. In June of that year Zach would take the test for lieutenant. Kathrine Russo was born in November of 2005. In 2008 Stephanie found out she was pregnant with her last child James, and in June of 2009 James was born 8 weeks premature with a myriad of health problems including being in the NICU for several weeks.
In 2010 the family rang in the new decade by finding out Zach's list number for lieutenant was called and would be promoted to lieutenant. When he was promoted Zach was assigned his first command. The Traffic detail. Zach would excel in traffic with his subordinates being amonst the most productive members of the department. During this time due to budget problems the motor unit was disbanded. Zach took a lot of flack from his men from this. In January of 2014 Zach was involved in an officer involved shooting when he was on patrol in his unmarked department vehicle and stumbled up what he thought was a disabled vehicle on the side of I-48, When he approached the car 2 suspects opened fire through the rear window of the car. Taking cover behind the door of his car he returned fire striking and killing one suspect and wounding the other. After this incident Zach was reassigned as the executive officer of the community affairs office. Due to him not retiring after the shooting although he was eligible the sheriff recognized him as a command staff potential and promoted him to the rank of captain where he worked as the XO for the operations bureau and then due to the unexpected retirement of the Commander Pombo the then CO of operations Russo was assigned Acting CO of Operations.
