Editor’s Note: This is a developing story that will be updated as new information becomes available.
By Julia Cardi
The Detroit News
HILLSDALE COUNTY, Mich. — A Hillsdale County sheriff’s deputy has been killed in a shootout with a suspect Thursday afternoon, Michigan State Police said.
The suspect was killed by troopers who found him after he evaded law enforcement for a few hours, according to the agency.
Police were looking for Eric Michael Fiddler shortly after 4 p.m. in connection the shooting of the deputy, who later died from his injuries. Troopers found Fiddler in a field near Culbert Road and Osseo Road South around 6:15 p.m. , according to a post on X, and he opened fire on the officers when they told him to surrender.
Fiddler allegedly shot the deputy in the area of Beecher Road and Lamb Road.
The state police have not released the deputy’s identity, his age or the circumstances of the shooting, saying more information would come Friday.
“Colonel Grady and the members of the MSP are heartbroken to learn of the on-duty death of a Hillsdale County Sheriff’s Office deputy, the second police officer to be killed this week while serving the residents of Michigan,” MSP said on X on Thursday night.
“We extend our sincere condolences to the Hillsdale County Sheriff’s Office and the family and friends of this slain deputy.”
The development marks the second death of a sheriff’s deputy in Michigan in less than a week.
Oakland County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Bradley Reckling, 30, was killed Saturday while working undercover. Sheriff Michael Bouchard said Reckling, a nine-year veteran, was trailing a 2022 Chevrolet Equinox belonging to a Rochester Hills couple that had been stolen from the Red Oaks Waterpark in Madison Heights between 1-5:15 p.m. Saturday.
Reckling was one of three detectives from the office’s auto theft unit who cruised Detroit’s east side searching for the vehicle near Park Grove and Schoenherr about five hours after the theft. He was fatally shot in what Bouchard described as an ambush.
“Prayers to Hillsdale County Sheriff’s office as we have lost another deputy there,” Bouchard said late Thursday..
Condolences from other Michigan first responder agencies poured in on social media Thursday night.
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