'Our hero': Kalamazoo County sheriff remembers Sgt. Ryan Proxmire

The Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Office missed one of its heroes on Thursday. Sheriff Fuller spoke with FOX 17 about what fallen deputy Sgt. Ryan Proxmire meant to his department.

"That's a memorial set up with the units... that their unit numbers equal his employee number," Fuller told FOX 17, referring to two vehicles parked on the department's front lawn.

"It's our goal to always make sure the community remembers our hero; our agency will always remember our hero," he said.

While the vehicles have been on the lawn all week, Proxmire has been on the department's mind every day.

"He was always kind and just, you know, open to everyone, and didn't look down on anybody," Fuller told FOX 17. "That's how we remember Ryan Proxmire."

Proxmire was part of a group of deputies that responded to an incident at a Galesburg gas station on Aug. 14, 2021. "We recognize that there's a lot on the line, and our goal every night is to keep people safe and to go home to our families," Fuller said.

During a high-speed chase, Proxmire was shot. He was taken to the hospital where he died the next day.

According to the sheriff, the deputy's memory lives on in the community. He says many people outside of the department remember the kind of person he was.

"The way he responded, the way he responded every day, makes him a hero to me," he said.

Proxmire's locker remains in the locker room as a memorial. There are plans to have it encased and moved to the station's lobby.

Fundraising for the memorial will happen on Aug. 18 at the Gull Lake View Golf Resort.

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