Hillsdale County deputy fatally shot while pursuing suspect
A Hillsdale County sheriff’s deputy was killed in a shootout with a suspect Thursday afternoon, Michigan State Police said.
The suspect was killed by police officers who found him after he evaded law enforcement for several hours, authorities said.
Shortly after 4 p.m., police were searching for Eric Michael Fiddler in connection with the shooting of the deputy sheriff who later died from his injuries. According to a post on X, cops found Fiddler in a field near Culbert Road and Osseo Road South around 6:15 p.m., and he opened fire on officers when they asked him to surrender.
Fiddler is said to have shot the deputy in the area of Beecher Road and Lamb Road.
State police have not released the deputy’s identity or age, nor the circumstances of the shooting. Police said more information would be released Friday.
This is the second death of a deputy sheriff in Michigan in less than a week.
Deputy Bradley Reckling, 30, of the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office was killed Saturday while conducting an undercover investigation. Sheriff Michael Bouchard said Reckling, a nine-year veteran, was following a 2022 Chevrolet Equinox owned by a Rochester Hills couple that was stolen from Red Oaks Waterpark in Madison Heights between 1 p.m. and 5:15 p.m. Saturday.
Reckling was one of three detectives from the bureau’s auto theft unit who scoured Detroit’s east side near Park Grove and Schoenherr for about five hours after the theft. He was fatally shot in what Bouchard described as an ambush.
“Colonel Grady and the members of the MSP are deeply saddened to learn of the death of a Hillsdale County Sheriff’s Office deputy in the line of duty. This is the second law enforcement officer killed this week while serving the people of Michigan,” the MSP said on X on Thursday evening.
“We extend our sincere condolences to the Hillsdale County Sheriff’s Office and the family and friends of this slain deputy.”
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