On a late summer evening, the life of Michigan State Police Trooper Paul Kenyon Butterfield II, a 43-year-old male, was cut short during what began as a routine traffic stop. On September 9, 2013, at approximately 6:20 p.m. on Custer Road in Mason County, Butterfield pulled over a vehicle. Shortly after he radioed in the stop, a passing motorist made a frantic 911 call to report that a trooper had been shot.
First responders arrived to find Butterfield on the ground with a gunshot wound to the head. He was immediately airlifted to Munson Medical Center, but tragically succumbed to his injuries while in surgery.
The crucial piece of information that Trooper Butterfield relayed to dispatch before the shooting, a description of the vehicle, became the cornerstone of the investigation. This vital clue led authorities to identify a suspect. Roughly two hours after the shooting, investigators tracked the suspects to a convenience store in a neighboring county. The male suspect, 19-year-old Eric Knysz, and his 20-year-old wife, Sarah Knysz, were located. As officers approached, Eric Knysz brandished a handgun, leading to an exchange of gunfire in which he was wounded before both he and his wife were taken into custody.
The subsequent investigation revealed that Eric Knysz had shot Trooper Butterfield because he was transporting stolen guns and feared arrest. In the trial that followed, Eric Knysz was convicted of first-degree murder in February 2014 and received a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. His wife, Sarah Knysz, pleaded guilty to charges of being an accessory after the fact and auto theft, receiving a sentence of two to five years in prison. The story took another grim turn after the sentencing, when Eric Knysz was found unresponsive in his prison cell. He had attempted to take his own life and, after being declared brain dead at a local hospital, he died three days later.
