Putnam: 'Deven's Voice' float denied spot in holiday parade

The controversial death of a Mulliken teen continues to deeply divide Eaton County residents right down to the year’s bitter end.

The Grand Ledge Chamber of Commerce rejected a parade application from Deven’s Voice, a community group supporting the family of 17-year-old Deven Guilford, who was shot and killed in February by an Eaton County Sheriff's Department sergeant following a routine traffic stop. The officer said he shot the unarmed youth in self-defense. Much of the traffic stop was caught on the sergeant's body camera, but there is not video showing the shooting.

Angela Mulder, a leader of an informal group called Deven’s Voice and a friend of his family, said the group’s float application for Friday's 7 p.m. holiday parade was rejected because it was “too volatile.”

Mulder said the point of the group’s parade float was to honor the life of Guilford, who would have graduated from Grand Ledge High School with the Class of 2016.

“His life and his death is being swept under the rug because of the controversy around it. I think that’s wrong,” Mulder said.

Chamber Executive Director Jill Russell said that the chamber's board was unanimous in rejecting the float for the parade that is meant to be a fun event for families.

“It’s not the venue for such a divisive issue,” she said.  That doesn’t mean there isn’t sympathy over a family grieving a lost child, she said Thursday.

“Of course we can sympathize with the situation but we don’t want to incite more division within the community,” she said.

The chamber appears to be in a no-win position on that point.

Mulder and other Guilford supporters have sharply criticized Eaton County Prosecutor Doug Lloyd and Sheriff Tom Reich for decisions that the officer was justified in shooting Guilford and that he followed department protocols. Mulder also blamed Lloyd for losing her temporary position at a local law firm in September because she criticized Lloyd on social media. The prosecutor and the law firm deny that was the reason. She’s still looking for work.

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The parade rejection won’t stop the determined advocates from having a presence. They will park their “float” — a snowplow truck with holiday lights and Deven Guilford’s name — at the end of the parade in a bike shop parking lot, next to the Sun Theatre. There, they’ll also collect cold weather gear for the nonprofit group Homeless Angels and serve treats, cocoa and offer crafts for children.

Mulder said the Guilford family will have a table with information on the death of their son. Deven's Voice is turning to community service, such as the collection of hats and scarves for the homeless, in an effort to show the public that the group is not anti-police and to combat the image that they are bad people, she said.

Guilford was stopped Feb. 28 for flashing his high beams at Sgt. Jonathan Frost. The stop escalated rapidly with Frost trying to arrest Guilford for failing to produce his driver’s license. Frost was justified in shooting the teen after he was attacked by the youth, the prosecutor determined. The family disputes those facts in a civil lawsuit filed in October.

Maybe even the wisdom of Solomon wouldn't be enough to decide how to proceed with the holiday parade without taking sides. The tragedy continues to reverberate nine months after the teen's death with no end in sight.

Judy Putnam is a columnist with the Lansing State Journal. Contact her at (517) 267-1304 or at jputnam@lsj.com. Write to her at 120 E. Lenawee St., Lansing, MI, 48919. Follow her on Twitter @JudyPutnam.