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In Auburn Hills, Oakland deputies mourned day after Hillsdale cop killed

Gillberg
In Auburn Hills, Oakland deputies mourned day after Hillsdale cop killed

Hundreds of police from across southeast Michigan and as far as Ohio and Canada gathered Friday in Auburn Hills to pay last respects to one of their own ‒ killed in the line of duty.

Bradley Reckling, a nine-year veteran of the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office, was killed on Saturday night when the youths he was pursuing in a stolen SUV stopped the vehicle on Detroit’s east side, leaped out and shot him repeatedly at close range. Reckling was leading other officers in a lengthy chase of the youths that began earlier in the day, when a Chevrolet Equinox was stolen at Red Oaks Waterpark, the county’s big public facility in Madison Heights.

Three youths are in custody in the incident that shocked stunned Michigan’s first responders, only to have them rocked by a second death on Thursday. A Hillsdale County deputy was killed in a shootout about 20 miles south of Jackson.

“Prayers to Hillsdale County Sheriff’s Office as we have lost another deputy there,” Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said Thursday night, on the department’s Facebook site.

Reckling’s smiling image was added this week to the top of the page, alongside that of Oakland Deputy Eric Overall, who died in the line of duty in 2017 when he was struck by a fleeing man’s car.

Reckling, 30, was married and the father of three daughters, ages 5, 4 and 1, and his wife, Jacqueline, is expecting a fourth child, Bouchard said. Less than two weeks before his funeral, on Father’s Day, the family’s church in Auburn Hills held a service entitled “No Joke, You’re a Dad.” On Friday, mourners jammed The Apostolic Church on Squirrel Road, bidding tearful farewells to a respected detective, popular colleague, churchgoer and neighbor, husband and father.

Reckling is the seventh Oakland County Sheriff’s deputy to be killed in the line of duty in the department’s 200 years of existence, and his was the first on-duty death due to assault in more than eight decades, a spokesman said.

On Friday, as visitation ended at 3 p.m., the church’s parking lot was filled with hundreds of officers, all in their respective departments’ full-dress uniforms, standing in ranks facing the entrance, where a hearse was parked.

One veteran of the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office, who declined to give his name, said Deputy Reckling had “just started on the stolen car task force.” The night Reckling was fatally shot “might’ve been his first run after a stolen car, or one of his first,” the officer said.

Outside the church’s entryway, an honor guard formed, each member attired in white globes. Media members were asked to stand about 100 yards away. At the entry drive to the parking lot, we’ve parked two fire service ladder trucks, their extended ladders forming an arch from which hung a large American flag, waving under gray skies.

Officiating at the service were three church leaders, led by Bishop Roland Baker ‒ listed in a church program that has Reckling’s smiling face on its cover, beside the words “honor, duty, courage.” Giving the eulogies were “family and friends” along with Bouchard, Oakland County’s top cop since 1999.

After the 90-minute service, and under a sprinkle of rain, hundreds of officers reformed their ranks outside the church. Nearby stood rows of dignitaries, including Oakland County Executive David Coulter and U.S. Rep. John James. Family members gathered near the hearse, including Reckling’s widow, holding in her arms the couple’s year-old daughter.

After long minutes of silence, a dirge of bagpipes began streaming from the church, suddenly growing loud as 10 pipers emerged with a corps of drummers behind, playing on as pallbearers rolled the casket out. Next came an ear-splitting 21-gun salute, fired in the traditional three volleys by seven members of an honor guard. Finally, there was the soft playing of taps by a bugler, whose notes were drowned out momentarily as a county helicopter roared low overhead, banking west over the church and quickly disappearing as if to suggest how swiftly a vigorous life can end.

Soon, a call rang out multiple times through the ranks of officers: “Detail! Stand by for final salute!”In front of the assembled troops stood Bouchard, in white gloves and with six gold stars on navy sleeves. His and hundreds of other eight hands rose slowly to foreheads, as a squad of motorcycles filed past, followed by the hearse and then dozens of police vehicles, all with lights flashing, some with sirens screaming,

Contact Bill Laytner: [email protected].

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