'Dedicated drive to serve': Deputy Larry Henderson gave 4 decades of public service
Henderson, who grew up in Terrace Park, was continuing a family tradition.
His father served in the Marines during the Vietnam War. His grandfather was awarded the Navy Cross for his service in the Marines during World War II.
Henderson spent several years as a missile operator, based in Hawaii. Then, between 1991 and 1992, after being called back to service during the Gulf War, he was a tank crew member at Fort Knox in Kentucky.
His commitment to service didn't end there. By 1991, he had joined the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office, starting out as a corrections officer at the jail.
He would serve 33 years before retiring in December 2024.
'He had a dedicated drive to serve – whether it was his country, his county or just his friends,' said retired Hamilton County sheriff's Sgt. Bradford Justice, a close friend of Henderson's. 'He would give you the shirt off his back and wouldn't think twice about it.'
Hamilton County Sheriff's Deputy Larry Henderson
But after his retirement, Henderson continued to work as a special deputy, taking assignments like the one he was working the afternoon of May 2, when he was killed by a man who prosecutors say intentionally drove into him. Henderson, a 57-year-old father of five, was doing traffic control for a University of Cincinnati graduation ceremony.
It was the kind of tragedy that seems improbable for a man who spent more than two decades on a regional bomb squad, about a decade as a SWAT team member, and also served on the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force.
'Strong sense of duty'
One of Henderson's first calls with the bomb squad was to a cornfield, where he and his team had to disarm about a dozen improvised explosive devices similar to anti-personnel mines used by the military. They had been placed in the fields to protect a marijuana crop.
All were safely disarmed.
Another early response was to a house that had been rigged to explode by a man who died by suicide inside the house. The man's apparent goal was to take out as many first responders as possible.
'We lost a really good one,' Justice said. He joined the bomb squad with Henderson in the early 2000s. Justice also served with Henderson on the Hamilton County Police Association SWAT team, which includes law enforcement personnel from multiple police agencies.
Henderson was promoted to road patrol in 1998 but was constantly involved in activities beyond his road patrol duties.
In addition to the bomb squad and SWAT team, Henderson was a field training officer for new deputies, a dive team member, an active shooter instructor, Taser instructor and self-defense instructor.
Hamilton County sheriff's Lt. Erik Pfaffl, who was trained by Henderson in 2001 and ended up working with him on the same road patrol squad, said he has never known anyone at the agency who took on as many specialized assignments as Henderson.
'He had a very strong sense of duty, and he was that person who was always early, who was always ready to go,' Pfaffl said. 'But what made it unique – everything that he did, he was so good at.'
He said Henderson's work as a trainer at the academy had a lasting impact.
'He 100 percent saved cops' lives,' Pfaffl said.
Security detail for UC football
Henderson also was well known to the University of Cincinnati football program. For approximately 20 years, Henderson was part of the security detail for UC's football team, university officials confirmed. That time frame spanned several coaches, including Brian Kelly, now at Louisiana State University, current U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville, and current head coach Scott Satterfield.
Larry Henderson at an undated University of Cincinnati football game.
He would travel to away games as well as bowl games, which meant that after games, Henderson and another officer would walk on the field with the head coach. He could often be seen on national television broadcasts.
Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey, in public comments May 6, said Henderson never sought a promotion beyond deputy. He was adamant about wanting to be on "the front line," McGuffey said.
"He was certainly an all-around, extraordinary man," she said, "who gave his life to public service."
Staff writers Bebe Hodges and Quinlan Bentley contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Remembering Hamilton County Sheriff's Deputy Larry Henderson
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