Deputy Larry Ray Henderson, Jr.
Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office
Served: Almost 34 years
June 1991 to May 2, 2025
OFFICER
Larry was born June 11, 1967 in Cincinnati to Larry Ray Henderson and Judith Ann (Parker) Henderson, Sr. He attended Mariemont High School and graduated in 1985.
There was a tradition in Lary’s family. His grandfather, Raymond Parker, was awarded the Navy Cross as a Marine at Guadalcanal. His father was a decorated Marine in Vietnam. It was no surprise when Larry enlisted in the United States Marine Corps immediately before or after graduation, on May 28, 1985 completed boot camp at Parris Island. In September, he completed Infantry Training School in Jacksonville, North Carolina. He was assigned to the Marine Barracks at Pearl Harbor in January 1986 and served as an antitank missile gunner with Headquarters Company, 3rd Marine Division. He was honorably discharged on May 28, 1989.
Larry was called back to active service in 1991 and served for a year as an M1A1 Tank Crewman in the 8th Tank Battalion, 4th Marine Division at Fort Knox. He was discharged as a Corporal.
On June 14, 1991, Larry joined the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office as a Corrections Officer. After outstanding evaluations in Corrections, on December 11, 1997, he was promoted to Patrol Clerk and transferred to the Patrol Division. On June 11, 1998, he was promoted to Patrol Officer. The Loveland/Symmes Task Force named him the Diver of the Year in 1999. In January 2001, he was trained as a Hazardous Material Technical Technician. In 2007 he received an award for his supervision of the Sheriff’s Dive Team. Deputy Henderson joined the Hamilton County Police Association Regional SWAT Team in January 2013. On May 17, 2018, he was assigned as a Deputy United States Marshal to the prestigious Federal Bureau of Investigation Joint Terrorism Task Force. During his tenure there, United States Senator Portman sent a letter of appreciation to him and on August 7, 2020 and the FBI Special Agent in Charge sent a letter of commendation in December 2020 to the Sheriff’s Office. On March 11, 2021, he returned to the Sheriff’s Office in the Enforcement Division. During his career, he was also a member of the Bomb Detection team, a DARE and Academy instructor, and a member of the Honor Guard. Most of his commanders’ evaluations speak to the multiple assignments he simultaneously held, his proficiency at each, and his being a model to younger officers. Deputy Henderson retired on December 17, 2024 with 37 years of service to his country and county and too many letters of appreciation and/or commendation to count, including from high-level commanders of other law enforcement agencies, police chiefs of Addyston, Golf Manor, Loveland, Newtown, and North College Hill, sheriffs of Clark County, Warren County, Highland County, and Brown County and several Hamilton County Sheriffs’ commendations. Three days later, he returned to serve as a Special Deputy.
MURDERER
Like Deputy Henderson’s family, the Hinton men had a tradition, though a less honorable one. Theirs was a tradition of theft, drugs, and violence. While any Juvenile Court record is sealed, when he was 19 years old, Rodney Hinton, Sr., was arrested for Grand Theft in February 1985. He was arrested again in June 1991 for Aggravated Robbery, Robbery, and Grand Theft and was sent to prison, but obviously not for the 4-25 years listed in the statute. In April 1993, he was shot in the leg in a drive-by shooting, a common trait among drug dealer squabbles. So far in his life he since been arrested for Assault, Drug Abuse (three times), Domestic Violence (three times), Unauthorized Use of a Motor Vehicle, and Breaking and Entering and Possession of Criminal Tools. Justice, however, was rarely, if ever, fully served.
Following his example, his son, Rodney Hinton, Jr., has a criminal record for arrests for Disorderly Conduct, Assault, and Domestic Violence. Before these, he was placed on probation for a crime or crimes that were not found on his public record.
His criminal record, if any, in Juvenile Court, is sealed, but it was no surprise that on May 1, 2025, Rodney Jr.’s 18-year-old son, Ryan Hinton, was found by police, heavily armed, in a stolen vehicle with three other men who also had numerous arrests among them, including for Felonious Assault. None of the three were old enough to possess handguns, but they had two, at least one of which was stolen.
As the officers approached the car, all four occupants ran from the vehicle. During the chase, Hinton pulled out a .40 caliber Glock Model 23 semiautomatic pistol with an extended magazine. The .40 caliber is one of the most powerful concealable firearms with ballistics on a par with the .45 automatic and used by the FBI and many law enforcement agencies because of its Relative Stopping Power. Hinton fell and dropped the weapon. An officer’s body worn camera shows him getting up again and grabbing up the weapon. When he pointed it at an officer he was shot twice, in the chest and arm.
Immediately, the officers attempted life-saving measures for Hinton, but he did not survive.
INCIDENT
On May 2, 2025, Ryan Hinton’s family was invited to review the evidence, including some video, of his actions and the results of his actions. Ryan’s father, Rodney Hinton, Jr., instead of taking personal responsibility for contributing to his son’s criminality and death, left the meeting at 10:37 a.m. and got into another family member’s car, leaving his at the police facility. At 12:41 p.m., he returned to pick up his car and left the facility at 12:44 p.m. He returned at 12:39 p.m. and drove through the parking lot, leaving again at 12:50 p.m.
At that point evidence shows Hinton ended up driving east on Martin Luther King Drive near Burnett Woods Drive where Deputy Henderson was on a median engaged in traffic control. Deputy Henderson was in uniform and wearing a fluorescent vest, indicating his status as a working police officer. Hinton stopped, waited for traffic to clear, then at roughly 1:05 p.m. drove across multiple lanes of traffic at a high rate of speed targeting the deputy. He struck Deputy Henderson and crashed into a pole before coming to a stop.
Cincinnati Police Officers immediately responded and attempted life-saving measures for Hinton and Deputy Henderson. They were successful with Hinton. Both were transported to University Hospital Medical Center just blocks away. Both were initially reported in Critical Condition.
DEATH
Cincinnati Police Chief Teresa Theetge and Hamilton County Sheriff Charmain McGuffey held a press conference at 5:37 and announced that Deputy Henderson did not survive his wounds. He was 57 years old.
His death shocked the region, and the nation. It was the first time in the 233-year history of Greater Cincinnati law enforcement that an officer was targeted for no reason other than that he wore a badge. Indeed, it was only the second time a murderer targeted a Greater Cincinnati law enforcement officer for murder. The other was Hamilton County Special Deputy Elmore David Pressley in 1944. Deputy Henderson is the fifth murdered Hamilton County Deputy in its 228-year history and the 212th known law enforcement officer to die in Boone, Butler, Campbell, Clermont, Dearborn, Hamilton, Kenton, and Warren Counties.
Deputy Henderson is survived by his wife, Lorena D. “Lori” (Cozzi) Henderson; children, Larry Ray (Sophia) Henderson III, Alexandria (Steve) Sagel, Taylor Nathaniel Henderson, Riley Logan Henderson, and Adrianna Noelle Henderson; and grandchildren, Maverick, Parker, Logan, and Rowan; and sister, Jeanne Stockton.
His family includes several other law enforcement officers, including uncles, retired Hamilton County Sheriff’s Detective Dennis Goebel and former U.S. Army Military Policeman Mike Stringer; cousins, Cincinnati Police Officer John Goebel and Sergeant Tory King; and second cousins, retired Cincinnati Police Specialist Scott Krauser and United States Border Patrol Assistant Chief Brian Behan.
A few hours after his death, Deputy Henderson was escorted to a funeral home by multiple police patrol cars and motorcycles. The Hamilton County Police Association’s Honor Guard stood guard over him until his internment.
A public visitation was held during the evening of May 8, 2025 at Spring Grove Cemetery Funeral Home and hundreds, from more than a hundred interstate law enforcement agencies, passed by the casket. On Friday, May 9, 2023, a cortege took Deputy Henderson to Xavier University’s Cintas Center for a venue large enough to handle the thousands expected for another public visitation and funeral service. The cortege took 45 minutes from the first to last to pass any fixed point, taking Deputy Henderson back to Spring Grove Cemetery’s Rose Garden for police honors. The family then had a private graveside service.
JUSTICE
The Cincinnati Police Department Homicide Unit, at the request of the Sheriff’s Office, took the lead in the Homicide Investigation, assisted by the Department’s Traffic Unit and their sophisticated crash reconstruction technology.
Before the day was out, detectives signed a complaint against Hinton for Aggravated Murder with a Peace Officer specification (with the possibility of a death sentence). He was arrested at the hospital for the resulting warrant.
He was arraigned the next morning on May 3, 2025 before Judge Tyrone K. Yates. Judge Yates designated John Kennedy and Tim Bicknell as his trial attorneys who requested a continuance of the arraignment. Judge Yates continued the case to May 6, 2025 and ordered, at the attorneys’ request, that Hinton be held in the Clermont County Jail without bond.
On May 8, 2025, the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office announced that Hamilton County Grand Jury returned an indictment against Hinton for two counts of Aggravated Murder with a Peace Officer specification and the possibility of a death sentence. Prosecutor Pillich describe his actions as a “targeted killing.” He was also indicted for two counts of Felonious Assault for the two University of Cincinnati graduate relatives near Deputy Hinton at the time of the murder (Case Nos. B-2502219-1, 2, 3, 4, and 5). By then, his attorney was Clyde Bennett, II.
On May 12th, Presiding Judge Cross certified the case as a Capital Death Case and the Ohio State Supreme Court was so notified.
The Sheriff’s Office served the indictment warrants on Hinton on May 13th, and he was arraigned on May 14th and still held without bond. Several motions were filed by the defense attorneys over the next two weeks including psychiatric screening, waving time, suppressing a statement, discovery, bill of particulars, inspection of grand jury testimony, etc. The particulars of these motions are being hidden by the Clerk of Courts on their website, though they are public by Ohio statute.
A pretrial hearing is scheduled for June 18, 2025. Another “final” pretrial hearing is scheduled for January 6, 2026. And a jury trial is scheduled for January 12, 2026, all before Judge Jody Luebbers.
EPILOGUE
Four Felons
The Cincinnati Police Department’s Internal Investigations Section and Criminal Investigation Section, Homicide Unit, Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office, and Hamilton County Coroner’s Office conducted parallel and independent investigations and reported their findings to Hamilton County Prosecutor Connie Pillich.
Ryan Hinton
On June 17, 2025, Prosecutor Pillich held a media conference where she announced that, “When Ryan Hinton was confronted by officers about a stolen car, he not only had a gun, with a fully loaded magazine and a bullet in the chamber, but he pointed it at Officer A. Officer A made a split-second decision that likely saved his life and the lives of other officers[1]. The fatal bullet went through the left chest, shattered a rib, hit the heart and then exited through the chest.” During the media conference, she showed images of Hinton showing off two semiautomatic pistols with extended magazines.
Fanon Rucker, the Hinton family’s attorney, without access to the evidence, held a media conference immediately afterward announcing that he would be filing a civil suit against the officers regardless.
The three others in the stolen car with Ryan Hinton were Cynsere Grigsby (18), Jurell Austin (18), and Deanthony Bullocks (19). On Monday, May 12, 2025, the Hamilton County Grand Jury announced identical indictments for all three: Obstructing Official Business (2 counts), Theft (2 counts), Receiving Stolen Property (2 counts), Improperly Handling of a Firearm in a Motor Vehicle, and Having Weapons Under Disability. All three were initially denied bond and were at the time of the indictment being held in Hamilton County Jail.
Cynsere Grigsby Case No. B-2502220-A
His juvenile criminal record is sealed, but he was less than 18½ years old on May 1, 2025 he was found by police in a stolen vehicle containing two handguns, one stolen, and three other men, at least two of which were had prior felony charges, include theft of a motor vehicle and Felonious Assault. He was arraigned before Judge Katie Casch on May 13thand pleaded not guilty. Judge Casch set a bond of $50,000 at 10% and, if posted, he must wear an electronic monitoring device. On May 29th, Judge Casch granted a continuance until July 1st for a plea or trial setting.
Jurell Austin Case No. B-2502220-B
His juvenile criminal record is sealed, but at 18, Austin was charged on December 30, 2024, with three counts of Felonious Assault and Discharge of a Firearm Near Prohibited Premises from December 30, 2024. Judge Katie Casch set his bond for $50,000 and his bond was posted on January 3, 2025. On April 15, Judge Casch continued his case to May 6, 2025 for a plea or trial setting. Five days before that date, on May 1, 2025, at 18¾ years old, he was found by police in a stolen vehicle containing two handguns, one stolen, and three other men, at least one of which was on probation involving another stolen vehicle. At his scheduled hearing, his attorney filed a motion declaring him incompetent to stand trial. His next appearance in court is scheduled for July 1, 2025 before Judge Katie Casch for a Competency Report.
The case history for his charges on May 1, 2025 is virtually identical to Grigsby’s except his July 1st appearance is for the Competency Report.
Deanthony Bullocks Case No. B-2502220-C
His juvenile criminal record, if any, is sealed, but at 18, Bullocks was charged on September 30, 2024 with Unauthorized Use of a Motor Vehicle, Failure to Comply With an Order or Signal of a Police Officer, and Obstructing Official Business. He went to trial before Judge William L. Mallory. Judge Mallory dismissed the felony and two misdemeanor charges and sentenced him to 180 days in jail on the third misdemeanor. He then suspended all but 30 days, gave him credit for 22 days, remitted his fines and fees, and put him on probation. If he served his eight remaining days, he was freed on probation November 1, 2024. Five months later, he was charged with Probation Violation and Judge Mallory dismissed that on April 15, 2025. Two week later, on May 1, 2025, at 19¼
[1] Officer used legal, justified force in shooting death of Ryan Hinton: Prosecutor. Fox 19 (Cincinnati, Ohio). June 17, 2025 @ 2 p.m.
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