Late HPD senior officer ‘Bill’ Jeffrey remembered as giving ‘life of service’

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner has remembered the late Houston Police Department Senior Officer William “Bill” Jeffrey as one who gave himself to the city.

Turner was among several people who paid tribute to Jeffrey during his funeral service on Sept. 27 at Grace Church, Houston.

Jeffrey and Sgt. Michael Vance were shot multiple times at 7:28 a.m. on Sept. 20 in the 5300 block of Aeropark at the Timber Ridge Apartments in northeast Harris County while executing a narcotics arrest warrant at the complex, a Death Obituary said. Vance was hospitalized. Jeffrey, 54, died from his injuries.

“For 31 years, he gave his life of service to this city,” Turner said in a video of the funeral. “His absence leaves a void in your lives permanently. It leaves a void in this city, but his life of service has made this city better. He could have retired, and in talking to the aunt this morning, who tried to get him to retire, she reminded me and said to me that he said that his life of service wasn’t done yet. That he still had work to do.”

Lacie Jeffrey, Jeffrey’s daughter, spoke at the funeral about how her father was an encourager, KHOU-11 reported.

“She recalled one instance when she was accepted into Texas A&M and the card she got from her dad. At the bottom of the card, he wrote ‘HNB,’” KHOU-11 reported. “I called him, and in the midst of that conversation, I asked him, ‘Hey dad, what does HNB mean?’ He said, ‘Hold nothing back.’”

Everyone comes together to thank “Bill,” Turner said.

“Bill, thank you for giving of yourself to this city,” Turner said in the video of the funeral. “And to this family, we lift you up and may God undergird you every single day.” 

The suspect in the Sept. 20 shooting was Deon Ledet, 30, the Death Obituary said. Ledet died after police fired at him the morning of the shooting.