RICHMOND, Ind. — Funeral services have been announced for a Preble County sheriff’s deputy who died in a fatal crash Monday that also killed another man in Gratis Twp.
The visitation for 34-year-old Deputy Joshua Hamilton of Eldorado is from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday at The Pentecostal Tabernacle, 480 W. Eaton Pike, Richmond, Indiana, according to his obituary. Funeral services will be at the church at 10 a.m. Saturday with Pastor Tyler Luck officiating. Burial will follow at Fairview Cemetery in Gratis.
Hamilton has been with the Preble County Sheriff’s Office since May 2022. Sheriff Mike Simpson said Hamilton started at the jail before he was promoted in June to road patrol.
Simpson said to his knowledge Hamilton is the first deputy who died in the line of duty in Preble County.
“This is hitting pretty heavy here,” the sheriff said.
Hamilton also served in the U.S. Navy from 2009 to 2015 and was a Naval reservist from 2015 to 2023, according to his obituary. He enlisted in the U.S. Army National Guard in January.
He is survived by his 10-year-old daughter, parents and sister.
Around 4 a.m. Monday, a head-on crash involving a sheriff’s cruiser was reported in the 4700 block of state Route 503, between Gratis and West Alexandria.
Hamilton was going south on state Route 503 in a marked 2018 Ford Explorer and 36-year-old Michael Eugene Gayhart II of West Elkton was traveling north when the crash occurred. The crash closed state Route 503 temporarily in both directions.
A 911 caller said both drivers were unresponsive.
Hamilton was transported to Kettering Preble ER Campus in Eaton and was pronounced dead.
He was on routine patrol at the time of the crash, which is under investigation by the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
Simpson described the crash as a “tragedy all around.”
He said the sheriff’s office is thinking about Gayhart’s family as well as Hamilton’s.
“We want to make sure that they know that we’re thinking about them at the same time,” Simpson said.
He described Hamilton as a good deputy and a huge loss to to the sheriff’s office.
Watch Live:
