A bailiff who shot and killed a man during an eviction last summer will not be charged for the fatal shooting.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy on Tuesday announced that she found that the 36th District Court bailiff “acted in lawful self-defense and defense of others,” according to a news release. The prosecutor’s office said the July shooting of Sherman Butler, 44, of Detroit, was justified. Housing advocates demanding justice for Butler expressed disappointment over Tuesday’s decision, saying it sends a “chilling message” to Detroit tenants.
During the July 12 incident, two officers with the Detroit Police Department were dispatched to a building in Palmer Park. The bailiff told officers he was “dealing with an aggressive person in an apartment,” according to Worthy’s office. One of the officers tried to explain to Butler that he was being evicted by the bailiff.
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Butler was on a bed in a bedroom with a box cutter placed to his neck and was “highly agitated and refused to leave the apartment,” the news release said. Butler, the prosecutor’s office said, was told several times to drop the box cutter, but he refused. According to Worthy’s office, Butler said he’d only leave if officers “used weapons and killed him.”
Both officers deployed their Tasers, but they did not work. Butler got off the bed and began waving the box cutter toward the bailiff, who fired shots at him, according to the news release. The bailiff fired again when Butler went toward one of the officers. Butler was shot multiple times. Other Detroit police officers at the scene had called for the Crisis Intervention Team, which acts to help people having a mental health crisis. Butler was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The officers were wearing body cams. Police accountability and housing advocates have called for the release of police body cam footage from the fatal shooting. However, the Detroit Police Department has said that because the shooting did not involve a department employee using deadly force, the video would remain confidential. Detroit police, in an August news release, said officers did not respond to the eviction but to the bailiff’s safety concerns.
Bob Day, part of a coalition of police accountability and housing advocates demanding justice for Sherman Butler, on Tuesday called the shooting dehumanizing.
“Why didn’t they wait for some help to arrive? Why didn’t they wait for somebody to talk with. … They needed some support. They needed an intervention, instead of just tasing him and shooting him down like he was nothing,” said Day, who works with the group Detroit Eviction Defense.
Steven Rimmer, of the Detroit Tenants Association, said Butler’s death shows the failure of the eviction process and raises questions about tenant safety, bailiff training and the need for accountability. He said Butler was a father, neighbor and valued community member.
“This decision sends a chilling message to tenants across Detroit, it reinforces a system that prioritizes profit over people and fails to protect vulnerable residents from unnecessary harm,” Rimmer said in an email on Tuesday.
The bailiff had a valid eviction order from Detroit’s 36th District Court, officials said. Body cam footage, according to the prosecutor’s office, shows the taser deployed by both officers did not work and Butler rising from the bed toward the bailiff and an officer with “an outstretched arm containing an open box cutter.”
“The alleged facts in this case are far too common and evinces a continued need for mental health crisis intervention teams,” Worthy said in a statement. “The body worn camera footage shows the 36 District Court bailiff did try to deescalate the actions of Mr. Butler, and the police did call a crisis intervention team. However, prior to their arrival, the bailiff had to act in self-defense and defense of others, and as a result Mr. Butler is now deceased. The actions of the bailiff were not criminal given these circumstances.”
The bailiff is a former officer with the Detroit Police Department. He was hired in June 1999 and resigned from the department in February 2003, DPD Public Information Director Dayna Clark had previously said. The July incident is under administrative investigation because of the use of force — in this case a Taser — was deployed, according to the department. That investigation could take months.
Detroit’s 36th District Court approves a list of court officers whom landlords may hire to conduct an eviction. They are not employees of the court but independent contractors. Court officers may obtain a license to carry a concealed firearm.
“While the situation was undoubtedly tragic, we have full confidence that the Detroit Police Department and the Wayne County Prosecutor conducted their work with diligence and integrity in addressing the matter,” Chief Judge William McConico said in a statement Tuesday evening.
The court officer remains an authorized contractor and the 36th District Court will not take any further action, McConico said.