By MES Dispatch Staff
The Briefing
- Country music artist Billy Ray Cyrus performed “Some Gave All” at the Oct. 4 funeral service for Kentucky State Police Trooper Hayden Phillips at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green.
- Phillips was killed in the line of duty Sept. 28 during a routine traffic stop on Interstate 65 in Warren County.
- Louisville Metro Police arrested Emonnie Branch, 51, of Tennessee, in Louisville after an extended manhunt.
- A Warren County grand jury indicted Branch on Oct. 1 on charges of murder of a first responder, possession of a handgun by a convicted felon and tampering with physical evidence.
- Cyrus wrote on Facebook that being asked to pay tribute was the highest honor of his life; he met Phillips’ wife and son before the service.
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — Country music artist Billy Ray Cyrus performed at the funeral service for Kentucky State Police Trooper Hayden Phillips on Oct. 4, singing “Some Gave All” at Western Kentucky University, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.
Cyrus described the experience in a Facebook post Monday as the highest honor of his life and shared photos from the day. He wrote that before the service he met Phillips’ wife and their young son, and that she told him Merle Haggard was her husband’s favorite artist. Cyrus also noted a tattoo Phillips had, which carried a line from the film “The Sandlot” about legends never dying.
Kentucky State Police Commissioner Phillip Burnett Jr. read the same line at the funeral, calling it words Phillips lived by.
Phillips died Sept. 28 during a routine traffic stop on Interstate 65 in Warren County. Louisville Metro Police arrested Emonnie Branch, 51, of Tennessee, in Louisville after an extended manhunt. A Warren County grand jury indicted Branch on Oct. 1 on charges of murder of a first responder, possession of a handgun by a convicted felon and tampering with physical evidence. Branch is presumed innocent until proven guilty.