Remembering Oakland County Deputy, Eric Overall
(WJBK) - Family and friends are remembering the life of Oakland County Sheriff's Deputy, Eric Overall, who was killed in the line of duty one year ago.
Deputy Eric Overall, worked as a school resource officer in Walled Lake and the night of Nov. 23rd 2017, while on duty, investigators say a suspect in a vehicle slammed into him and he died.
This was a day that Eric's son, Ken Overall, will never forget. But the memories he chose to hold on to are these.
"He loved me and my brother," said Ken. "When he came home from work, he didn't talk about work. It was always about us when he came home. He made an effort to go to all of our sport games, my brother played the violin. He was always there even if he was on duty he would sneak away and take a peek in and say hi and make sure I saw him and go back to work."
21-year-old Ken said his father knew something was going to happen. A premonition he shared with a select few just before he died.
"He knew that something was going to happen to him or had a feeling, " Ken said. "He had told my aunt and he told his best friend, my uncle Mike, and a month later something happened so he kind of knew that this was his time."
The time he did spend as an Oakland county sheriff's deputy is being honored and remembered.
"It is the worst thing that can happen to an agency is to lose someone in the line of duty, and I hope and pray it never happens again," said Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard,
"During the funeral I can't tell you how many kids and moms came up to me and said he changed the trajectory of our lives," said Bouchard. "He made such a huge impact on different people and he continued that when he was out on the road. Someone just sent me an email saying he stopped on I called and he listened to me and said he could help he would and he gave me his number, that's the kind of guy he was. "
That type of character, courage and passion for people is something Ken said keeps him going. A celebration of a life well lived, one helping others, this son's greatest pride. His dad's saying "never quit" now a mantra he lives by himself.
"He always had something that he had to push through," Ken said. When we lost my younger brother Cameron, he never quit was a huge thing at that point. He would always post something on Facebook and then at the bottom he would write never quit. And he would sign off with that. Never quit to me means you have to keep going, no matter what life throws at you, there's always light at the end of the Tunnel.
Some say Eric's legacy is something special.
"That kind of legacy is what we all hope to leave when we are not here. That we touched lives and made them better.," Bouchard said.