HILLSDALE, MI – Hillsdale County Sheriff’s Deputy William Henry Butler Jr. was not alone as he and his family rode to the Lakeview Cemetery for his internment. Thousands of friends, family, well-wishers and law enforcement officers from across Michigan assembled in Hillsdale Thursday, July 3, to honor and show their respect for Butler, killed last week in the line of duty.
An estimated 2,500 attended the funeral service at the massive, classical Christ Chapel on the campus of Hillsdale College. Outside the chapel, more than 100 police cruisers and motorcycles parked, ready to escort Butler to his final resting place two miles down the road. Along the procession path hundreds of Hillsdale County residents lined the streets waving American flags and saluting.
Some held signs of support with one reading, “‘We are praying for you” as a long line of blinking red, white and blue lights filled the road. “One way we could say thank you to a fallen hero,” said Brenda Frank, 62, of Osseo, who stood somberly along Bacon Road wearing red, white and blue. She had tears her eyes as the procession passed.
Nearby, mothers brought their children. To show them service and sacrifice, one said. Butler, 51, died Thursday, June 27.
A man shot him while he assisted a detective sergeant performing a traffic stop at 2:15 p.m. in the area of Beecher and Lamb Roads near Osseo, eight miles southeast of Hillsdale, in Jefferson Township.
The man escaped and later died in a shootout with poli.
