Police Officer Byron B. Soule, Jr.

Byron B. Soule, Jr.

Officer Soule and Officer Jon Ryckman were killed when their police aircraft collided with another aircraft over the Detroit River.

Officer Byron Soule Jr.and Officer Jon Ryckman were members of the Detroit Police Department’s aviation unit; Officer Ryckman as a pilot and Officer Soule, Jr., as an observer. Both officers had been working together for about a year and were primarily assigned to the airspace over Detroit’s eastside neighborhoods.

Around 12:45 a.m. on Friday, June 28, 1974, they were patrolling the east side and began heading towards Belle Island, a municipal park that sits on the Detroit River along the border with Windsor, in Canada. As they approached airspace on the river, a D-18 Beechcraft began to have engine problems and descended into an emergency landing. As the owner and pilot of the aircraft did this, he struck the officers' helicopter hard but continued his descent and crash landed at the Detroit City Airport.

Officers Ryckman and Soule, Jr. plunged straight into the river, dying either in the air or upon impact. The Detroit Police Department hastily organized a rescue effort and were able to find Officer Ryckman, a three-year veteran of DPD, soon after by dredging the river. It took through the morning to locate Officer Soule, Jr. The officers were the first fatalities of the department's aviation unit.

Officer Soule, Jr. was a nine-year veteran of the force. He is survived by his wife and two children.