Sheriff Michael "Mike" Garris is a character in the Friday the 13th franchise, making his first (and only) appearance in Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives as the secondary antagonist, and later turning-supporting character after realizing that Tommy Jarvis is telling the truth.
Character history[]
Mike Garris was the sheriff of the town of Forest Green, once known as Crystal Lake. One stormy night, he came into contact with Tommy Jarvis, who had been attempting to cremate the body of Jason Voorhees, the infamous Crystal Lake serial killer, only to inadvertently resurrect him when his corpse was struck by lightning. Tommy desperately tried to warn Sheriff Garris of Jason's return, but Garris, aware that Tommy had been institutionalized for most of his life after he himself killed Jason as a child, wrote him off as disturbed and placed him in a cell for the night.
The next morning, Garris' daughter Megan, slated to be one of the counselors at Camp Forest Green, arrived with several of her fellow counselors to report the disappearance of two other counselors the previous night (they had, in fact, been murdered by Jason himself, who was on the move to Crystal Lake himself). Though Tommy cited their disappearance as evidence of Jason's return, he was rebuked by everyone except Megan, who took a liking to him.
After sending Megan and the others on their way, Sheriff Garris proceeded to release Tommy and escort him out of town; en route, however, Tommy escaped and fled to the Eternal Peace Cemetery, where Jason had been buried, to show Garris the open grave, only to discover that the groundkeeper had re-buried the exhumed coffin, as well as the body of Tommy's friend Allen Hawes, who was killed and thrown into the coffin by Jason himself. Having had enough, Garris handcuffed Tommy and escorted him to the city limits, warning him not to come back.
In the meantime, Jason proceeded to murder a group of paintballers, as well as another counselor. When Garris discovered the bodies, he deduced that Tommy himself, living out a delusion of Jason's return, was the killer, and could not be convinced otherwise even though Megan insisted that Tommy was with her during two of the killings. When Tommy and Megan subsequently joined forces to defeat Jason, they were intercepted by a roadblock and taken to the police station, allowing Jason to slip into the summer camp and kill the remaining counselors.
Tommy and Megan escaped the police station and made their way to the camp, but Garris and his deputies arrived there shortly before they did. After seeing to the children's safety, Garris and co. were attacked by Jason himself, forcing them to realize that Tommy was telling the truth all along. Garris bravely put up a fight against Jason, but was ultimately no match for the killer, who fatally broke his back.