Accused car thieves ‘ambush’ deputy following them, killing him, Michigan officials say

A deputy was shot to death while following a stolen car, leaving behind three children and a wife with a baby on the way, Michigan officials said.

Though he was a veteran investigator, Deputy Bradley Reckling had only recently joined the auto theft unit at the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office, Sheriff Michael Bouchard said during a June 23 news briefing. He was trailing a group of suspects when they unexpectedly turned and opened fire, killing him, according to Bouchard.

On the afternoon of June 22, a vehicle was stolen from the Red Oaks Waterpark in Madison Heights, and Reckling was one of three deputies searching for it — a search that led them to Detroit, Bouchard said.

It was around 10:50 p.m. when Reckling spotted the stolen 2022 Chevrolet Equinox, and he began trailing it, officials said. But as he followed behind the Chevy in his unmarked cruiser, the car suddenly stopped, and passengers got out and shot Reckling multiple times.

“It was an ambush,” Bouchard said, adding that Reckling was hit in the head and chest.

The other two deputies soon arrived in their own cruisers, found Reckling and put out an alert that an officer was down, Bouchard said.

Detroit police and Michigan State Police “flooded the area very quickly,” he said. Officers established a perimeter and arrested three suspects in Reckling’s killing.

Because his cruiser was unmarked, there is no dashcam video of the shooting or his final moments, according to Bouchard.

“I can only surmise .... they felt like they had been made,” he said of the suspects. “That was their decision, instead of giving up or just running, to open fire on the lone deputy, over a car.”

Bouchard thanked fellow law enforcement for helping capture the accused thieves and said he’s hopeful they’ll face justice, though it won’t undo the damage done to Reckling’s family and the sheriff’s office.

Reckling was a husband, and father to three girls, ages 5, 4 and 1, Bouchard said, and his wife is pregnant with their fourth child.

A fellow deputy said Reckling “was always there to lend a helping hand,” and “a great cop, but an even better friend and father and husband,” according to Bouchard.

“Things like this are soul crushing,” he said, emphasizing that the loss of Reckling comes on the heels of a mass shooting at a splash pad in the Detroit suburb Rochester Hills, which injured nine people and ended with the alleged gunman dying by suicide.

His office and his deputies are “like a boxer,” he said. “You wonder how many punches they can get and still stay standing.”

This story was originally published June 23, 2024 at 1:46 PM with the headline "Accused car thieves ‘ambush’ deputy following them, killing him, Michigan officials say."