Donation accounts set up to help family of Hillsdale police officer killed during traffic stop

HILLSDALE COUNTY, MI – Friends and community members have launched a GoFundMe campaign and opened a bank account to collect donations for the family of Deputy William Henry Butler Jr., who was killed in the line of duty Thursday.

The GoFundMe, organized by Kelly Martin, has so far raised more than $3,700 for the Hillsdale County Sheriff’s deputy’s family as of Saturday, June 29.

“Sarah and Bill are so loved, and we need to show them how much support they have around them during an unfathomable time like this,” Martin wrote.

A donation account, to which the family is asking the public to make a donation in lieu of flowers, has been set up at Fifth Third Bank under the name “The Deputy Bill Butler Family Fund c/o the Hillsdale County Community Foundation.” It is unclear how much has been donated to this account so far.

Butler, 51, died Thursday, June 27. Butler spent 12 years with the Hillsdale County Sheriff’s Office. He was an Iraq War veteran, husband and father of five, according to police and his obituary.

Related: Deputy fatally shot during traffic stop identified as Iraq War veteran, father of 5

Eric Michael Fiddler shot Butler during 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, Michigan State Police said.

The driver of the vehicle, a 33-year-old man, was arrested on active warrants by a detective sergeant who initiated the traffic stop. Butler arrived on scene to assist the sergeant, police said.

Fiddler, still in the vehicle, refused to identify himself and fought with officers who tried to remove him from the vehicle, police said. Fiddler pulled out a handgun hidden in his waistband and shot Butler before running as officers returned fire, police said.

The detective sergeant grabbed Butler and rushed him to a local hospital, but he died of his injuries, state police said.

Fiddler, 34, was found hours later, around 6:15 p.m., in a field a few miles northwest of the traffic stop site, near the intersection of Culbert and Osseo roads, and was killed in a shootout with officers, police said. .

Butler’s funeral is scheduled for Wednesday, July 3, at 11 a.m. at Hillsdale College Christ Chapel, 8 E Galloway Drive in Hillsdale, with Jeremiah J. Hodshire officiating.

Burial with military honors will follow at Lakeview Cemetery, off Barnard Street in Hillsdale.

The family will receive visits from friends on Tuesday, July 2 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Hillsdale Assembly of God Church, 4075 Beck Road in Jonesville.

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