Thousands of people are expected to attend the funeral for Deputy Bradley Reckling, fatally shot on Saturday while tracking a stolen vehicle in Detroit.
Reckling, 31, and a 9-year veteran of the department, was searching for a 2022 Chevrolet Equinox that had been stolen from the Red Oaks Water Park in Madison Heights. He was assigned to the sheriff’s auto theft unit. Three suspects are in custody in Wayne County.
Reckling is survived by his wife, Jacqueline, and three daughters – Alyana, age 5; Isabella, 4, and Scarlett, 1. Jacqueline is expecting their fourth child.
Reckling’s service is at The Apostolic Church, 3655 N. Squirrel Road in Auburn Hills. It will not be broadcast by any media. Visitation is 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday, June 28, at the church. The funeral begins at 3 p.m.
Don Collick, an inspector for the state fire marshal’s office who works in eastern Oakland County, was among many people who stopped by the Pixley Funeral Home of Rochester to pay his respects this week. The funeral home is hosting a display of Reckling’s motorcycle, jacket, helmet and large poster through Friday.
Collick retired from Lyon Township as fire marshal and is active with the Warthogs, a motorcycle club for police and other public safety officers who share a love of riding and a mission of supporting families of public safety officers who are injured or killed in the line of duty.
“We appreciate the support from the public … the kind words they’re saying to our officers and officers from other agencies,” said a spokesman for the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office late Thursday. “It’s a difficult time for all of us. It causes all of public-safety officers to reflect on the nature and risks of their jobs.”
Robert Stevenson is executive director of the Michigan Association of Police Chiefs, a retired Livonia police chief, president of the Howell chapter of the Warthogs and a member of the Sheriffs and Municipal Memorial Assistance Response Team (SMMART).
Deputy Reckling’s death, he said, is a tragedy and a “reminder of the sacrifice some people unfortunately give to serve their communities.”
Matthew Saxton, Michigan Sheriffs’ Association executive director, worked for the Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office for 27 years, including two terms as sheriff.
“A line-of-duty death is a terrible thing and difficult for an agency to deal with,” he said. “But the people most affected are the surviving family members of the individual killed in the line of duty. Deputy Reckling … went to work one day and unfortunately never came home.”
Saxton said a memorial wall in Washington D.C. has 23,000 names of public safety officers who have died in the line of duty since the first known death in 1786, including 800 from Michigan.
He asked the public to remember their surviving family members, too.
“The tragic issue with this whole thing is that individuals felt that their appropriate response to be stopped in a stolen vehicle is to shoot a deputy solely doing his job as a peace officer for the folks in Oakland County and the state,” Saxton said, adding that many officers are killed in the line of duty by “criminals not being held accountable. These individuals were out on bond on previous charges and they needlessly took the life of a man just doing his job. Now four children are left fatherless and a wife is left without her spouse.”
Saxton encouraged anyone attending Friday’s services to be respectful to grieving family members and sheriff’s deputies.
“Please don’t forget Deputy Reckling and his family after Friday,” Saxton said. “It’s only just starting for the family, who I’m sure has been in a fog since last Saturday.”
Several fundraisers are underway to support the deputy’s family. By Thursday afternoon, more than 3,100 people had donated $269,215 toward a $350,000 goal for a GoFundMe started by Jacqueline’s uncle, Mark Szydlowski.
Also Thursday afternoon, the non-profit Mission Oakland had raised $285,000 for the family.
The Oakland County Deputy Sheriff’s Association Family Benevolent Fund had raised $28,688 from 309 donors toward a $50,000 goal.
The sheriff’s office confirmed that another public-safety charity, Tunnels to Towers, a non-profit based in New York City that honors a firefighter killed responding to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, has pledged to pay off the Reckling family’s mortgage. On its website, the charity says it has paid off hundreds of mortgages for families of fallen first responders.
Typically SMMART supports a department coordinating some details surrounding funerals for police or firefighters, but in this case the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office is handling the details. Sheriff Michael Bouchard is also a SMMART member.
“Unfortunately we’ve been involved in so many over the last decade or so, so we have a blueprint of sorts to help departments when they have a line-of-duty death,” Stevenson said.
He said a police officer’s funeral is a “huge undertaking” because it will attract close to 2,000 people, adding that Reckling’s death has resulted in condolence messages and travel plans from around the U.S. and Canada. He has already heard from departments in Chicago and Toronto.
Police and other public safety officials will be staged at one site to prepare for the final line at 2 p.m. Because so many will be participating, Stevenson said, there won’t be a traditional procession of vehicles from the church to the cemetery.
The funeral is open to the public. Stevenson said the only etiquette is to behave in a respectful manner – there’s no dress code for civilians.
“It’s a way to show the family and members of a department, in this case Oakland County Sheriff’s Office, that the public recognizes their sacrifice and shares to some degree the same feeling of loss,” he said. “It’s so important for the family.”
People who want to attend Deputy Recking’s funeral should “be cognizant of traffic. There will be plenty of people directing them. Be patient,” Stevenson said.
He will attend the services with the Howell Warthogs. Reckling belonged to Oakland County’s motorcycle team but was not a Warthogs member, Stevenson said.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered all U.S. and Michigan flags on state properties to be lowered to half staff on Friday to honor Recking’s service. She encouraged businesses and individuals to follow suit.
“Deputy Reckling was a dedicated officer, husband, and dad who worked hard to keep his community safe,” she said. “For years, he served Oakland County admirably, earning several awards for his professionalism. As we mourn his loss, our hearts are with his wife, Jacqueline, their three young daughters, their fourth child on the way, and all those who knew and served with him.”
