After two days of ceremonies honoring the life and public service of a Hamilton County Sheriff’s deputy prosecutors say was “targeted and killed,” Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey said his courage “reached beyond Hamilton County, beyond the state of Ohio.”
McGuffey, wearing a ceremonial uniform, spoke briefly to reporters on May 9 shortly after the end of Hamilton County Sheriff’s Deputy Larry Ray Henderson Jr.’s funeral service at Spring Grove Cemetery.
“He was courageous. He was honored. He was a deputy that all deputies aspire to be,” McGuffey said. She also expressed gratitude for the messages of support that have come from people across the nation.
Family, friends and fellow law enforcement officers gathered for a final time around Henderson, who was struck by a car and killed May 2 while directing traffic outside the University of Cincinnati’s commencement ceremony.
Henderson was honored during a public visitation and service at Xavier University’s Cintas Center, followed by a graveside ceremony and burial at Spring Grove.
Strangers paying their respects to Henderson stood quietly while lining the street outside Spring Grove to view the procession as it drove through the cemetery gates early in the afternoon. It included police officers from agencies all across Southwest Ohio and Northern Kentucky.
“This was a horrible tragedy,” said Don Garrett, a 77-year-old Vietnam War veteran who lives in Finneytown.
The final service featured a flyover, a ceremonial flag folding and a 21-gun salute, all time-honored traditions meant to show reverence for Henderson’s life and service, McGuffey said.
“When I presented the flag to his family, I noted that it was on the behalf of a grateful nation and the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department that I present that flag for Larry’s courageous career,” McGuffey said.
Henderson, a Marine Corps veteran, served 33 years with the sheriff’s office before retiring in December 2024. Henderson even volunteered to work in a specialized unit diffusing bombs, McGuffey said.
The program for Hamilton County Sheriff Deputy Larry Henderson, 57, at his services at Xavier’s Cintas Center, May 9, 2025. Henderson was killed in the line of duty May 2.
Henderson continued to work as a special deputy after his retirement, taking assignments like the traffic detail he was working on the day of his death.
“It’s hard to let go of Larry,” McGuffey said. “It’s very hard to let go.”
The man charged in Henderson’s death, Rodney Hinton Jr., is accused of intentionally driving his car into Henderson in apparent retaliation for the shooting death of his 18-year-old son, Ryan. The young man was shot and killed May 1 by a Cincinnati police officer while running from a stolen car with a gun. Hinton is charged with aggravated murder and could face the death penalty if convicted.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Larry Henderson funeral: Sheriff says ‘it’s very hard to let go’