Indiana officer shot in line of duty ‘alive, surrounded by family’

DAYTON, Ohio (WXIX) - An Indiana police officer, who was shot in the head and critically hurt in the line of duty last month, is still alive as her family remains by her side, Richmond Chief of Police Michael Britt wrote on Facebook Thursday.

The update on Officer Seara Burton’s condition comes a day after the Richmond Police Department wrote on Facebook that she was going to be taken off life support on Thursday.

The department said doctors at Miami Valley Medical Center in Dayton determined Burton’s injuries are “unrecoverable.”

Officer Burton is 28 years old and joined the police department four years ago. She was gunned down on Aug. 10, nine days before she was supposed to get married.

Below is the full Facebook post from the Richmond Police Department on Wednesday.

Indiana officer shot at traffic stop in ‘very critical condition,’ at Ohio hospital, state police say

Officer Burton was attacked while responding to help other officers with a traffic stop in Richmond, a city in eastern Indiana that borders Ohio and is part of the Dayton metropolitan statistical area.

Officer Burton made contact with a man, later identified as 47-yer-old Phillip Lee, of Richmond, riding a moped and her K-9 partner, Brev, alerted her to a possible presence of narcotics, Indiana State Police said last month.

While officers were talking with Lee, he pulled out a gun and shot several times toward the officers, striking Officer Burton.

Other officers returned fire and chased Lee until he was apprehended, state police said.

Officer Burton, meanwhile, was rushed by ambulance to a hospital and later airlifted to the hospital in Dayton, where she remained in “very critical condition,” according to state police.

Lee is held in lieu of a $1 million bond at the Wayne County Jail on two counts of attempted murder, unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon, possession of methamphetamine, possession of cocaine and possession of a narcotic drug.

Officer Burton’s K-9 was not hurt.

She recently became a K-9 handler and is the first female one in the city’s history, according to the police department.

Brev is being cared for by one of Richmond police’s investigators who is a former K-9 handler.

“He is in excellent hands and is being cared for in the best possible way,” the department wrote in a recent Facebook post.

Officer Burton and her fiancée Sierra Neal were scheduled to be married nine days after the shooting.

Neal marked that day by wearing a wedding dress to visit Burton in the hospital.

“Seara Burton I love you more than anything in this entire world and I am so very proud of you. You are my person,” she wrote, ending a red heart emoji, in a public Facebook post last month.