Overkill: Avenging the Death of Deputy Grant Whitaker

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Saturday Night

Updated December 26, 2016

It is Saturday night, December 6, 2014. A group of friends meet at the Alley Bar in Dexter, Michigan. John Kelsey, Justin Montgomery and Hildabridle brothers Tony and Brian have come there after hanging out for 2-3 hours at the Hildabridles' father's home in Pinckney, north of Dexter. At the Alley, they meet Sandie Hale (Tony's girlfriend), A. J. Wynn and Sabrina Ware. They drink Budweisers, eat onion rings, shoot pool and play darts. Sandie has 2 or 3 Long Island Iced Teas, but doesn't feel intoxicated. John, Brian and John's pitbull leave in John's big white SUV, headed for the Dam Site Inn in Hell (Michigan). Sandie and Tony go to Tony's dad's house. Sandie is finally feeling the Long Islands. She and Tony go to sleep. (V4-121)

John and Brian arrive at the Dam Site Inn at about 11:45. Justin Montgomery, A.J. Wynn, Sabrina Ware and Shannon Gauthier, sister of Tony and Brian are there. A band is playing. More Budweisers are drunk. At 1:45 Sunday morning, John and Tony leave the bar and talk to Justin in the parking lot for a few minutes, then John gets in the SUV with the pitbull and heads west on Patterson Lake Road, toward Stockbridge, where he lives at 4109 Morton Road. (V5-77)

Shortly after 2:00 a.m., Ingham County sheriff deputies Grant Whitaker and Richard Hoekstra, each in his own patrol car, are chatting in the parking lot of Mug & Bopps Marathon station near the corner of West Main and Stockbridge Road in Stockbridge. A white SUV speeds by at about 60 mph in a 35 mph zone and turns onto Morton Road, where the speed limit is 55. The two deputies take off after it. When Morton Road ends, the SUV turns right on Chapman Road. 25-year-old Whitaker in his fully marked car takes the lead and they accelerate to more than 100 mph. The SUV is still pulling away. Hoeksema is "calling the chase" - describing to the dispatch operator and to Sergeant James Every, his command officer, where they are and at what speeds they are travelling. Hoeksema and Whitaker also are in radio contact with each other. When Chapman Road ends, they turn right on Catholic Church Road and then right again on Dexter Trail. Dexter Trail has a number of very serious turns and bumps that compromise both driving conditions and visibility. At one point, Whitaker loses sight of the vehicle, then says he sees it again. Soon after, his radio goes silent.

Hoeksema passes an exhaust system on Dexter Trail. He keeps going, but hearing no more from his partner, he turns around at Brogan Road and heads back. He sees the vehicle about 40 feet off the road in the trees, sheared into three pieces. "Oh my God," he says. "Car is shredded." (V2-114) Whitaker is still strapped in - not breathing, no vital signs, non-responsive. Sergeant Every calls for medics, who quickly arrive but are unable to resuscitate Deputy Whitaker. They transport him to Sparrow Hospital in Lansing, where he is pronounced dead at 3:07 a.m.

Here is a transcript of the conversation between the two deputies, Sergeant Every and Central Dispatch. And here is the video from Deputy Hoeksema's dashcam: