TAYLOR (WWJ) — More than four decades after he was killed, a Michigan State Police trooper is being honored for trying to stop a robbery in Detroit.
Trooper Tony Thames, who worked out of the MSP Jackson Post, was off duty on June 12, 1983, when he came across an armed robbery in progress outside the former Balmer Motel on Jefferson Avenue in Detroit.
The 25-year-old off-duty trooper was shot and killed as he tried to stop the robbery. At the time, Thames was the 37th MSP trooper to be killed, a number that has now risen to 57.
On Tuesday, MSP officials held a highway sign dedication ceremony at the Metro South Post in Taylor. The sign will be placed along Jefferson Avenue, near the site of the former motel, just east of Downtown.
Speaking at the ceremony, Wendell Thames, one of the trooper's older brothers, said this spring he decided he wanted some type of memorial for his brother, culminating in Tuesday's dedication.
Thames says he's come to learn over the course of four decades there is a "brotherhood" within the MSP community.
"What I've always been told, from all Michigan State troopers, is that you're part of the family. 'Anything we can do that will help,'" Thames told WWJ Newsradio 950's Jon Hewett. "I go out to Tony's cemetery every year, sometimes three or four times a year… there's a flag out there all the time. So that really shows me that they really care and showing love to the Thames family."
With his brother's death coming a day before his birthday in 1983, Thames said for many years, he felt like he no longer had a birthday.
"One day, (it was) like he was on my shoulder, he said, 'man, stop this. Enjoy life, have parties and have fun like that,'" Thames said.
