Tyler Miller has left behind a community of best friends.
“He wouldn’t say anyone was his best friend,” said Beau Erhardt, a bondsman with Miller’s company TnT Bonding. “But we all feel he was our best friend.”
Miller, 51, was fatally shot while traveling through the Oak Creek Canyon in the Coconino National Forest north of Sedona, Arizona, on his way to a spiritual retreat.
Monday morning at TnT, one of several businesses Miller owned in Hutchinson, employees spoke through tears, grief visible on their faces. They remembered the man who made their life richer through his friendship.
“He trusted people,” said Christine Throckmorton, who worked for Miller the past eight years. There were so many people he met through bonding them.
“He gave jobs to people everybody else had turned their backs on,” she said. “Ty would give them a hand up and a chance.”
Along with TnT, he owned Stanley Liquor and Southside Smokes and was a partner in Team Employment. He also managed several family businesses.
“He was a wonderful man to work for,” Throckmorton said.
A fan of the Kansas City Royals, the Kansas City Chiefs, and University of Kansas sports, he was generous with tickets to games.
“He went way above and beyond what was required,” said Todd Biehler, a bondsman who worked for TnT for the past year. “ He helped me emotionally. I had just lost my best friend, and he took me to see the Chiefs, because he knew my heart was hurting. He would do what he could to bring you out of your slump.”
Miller’s wife Darcy has a photography studio next door to TnT on the corner of Adams Street and Fourth Avenue. The couple has four sons Casey, Cody, Clay, and Cade.
“He was a Buhler High graduate, and Darcy was his high school sweetheart,” said Throckmorton.
“Above all, he was a family guy, and he thought the world of his wife and sons," said Erhardt. "He never missed his sons' ball game or wrestling match. Because he was very centered around family, so he wanted to know his friends' families.”
Miller’s golf bag still stands inside the door of TnT. When Miller wanted to play golf, Erhardt said, they would head out to Carey Park with Cody and Jordan Throckmorton.
The joke was that Ty attempted to play golf, but he actually was a pretty good golfer.
“He was the boss: he owned the company, but we were all family,” said Erhardt. “ He saw to it that we were well paid. Our quality of life improved working for Tyler. Not materially or financially but just by knowing him.”
Erhardt recalled the interview when Miller hired him five years ago -- he could tell Miller was "a very kind man. He seemed excited to meet me."
Miller wasn’t generous just to his employees. Even strangers would reap his kindness. Just last week while ordering lunch at Chick-fil-A he paid for the meals of the people behind him in line.
“Ironically, they were police officers,” Erhardt said.
Miller planned the Arizona trip over New Year's weekend. Throckmorton said Miller was very excited about the spiritual retreat and taking some time to relax. She described him as a “worker.”
Now she can’t imagine him not calling or coming through the door.
For Throckmorton’s husband, Jordan, 29, Ty was a father figure, and “like my best friend.”
“He was the glue that kept everything together,” Jordan said. “His smile lit up a room.
“This is the worst thing that could happen to the best person walking the planet," Jordan added.
“There are so many unanswered questions,” Jordan said. “Why someone so good left us so soon. He was a man who would give someone the shirt off his back. He was a teddy bear. He told me once he had never thrown a punch.”
Monday, Jordan saw a white Toyota Tacoma pickup truck and immediately thought it was Ty.
“I just called his phone an hour ago so I could hear his voice.”
The FBI, in a brief statement released Monday evening, stated about the incident:
"The FBI is investigating an officer involved shooting/assault on a federal officer incident that occurred on Friday afternoon, January 5, 2018 on Arizona State Route 89A, north of Sedona. A Forest Service Officer stopped to render assistance to a vehicular traffic accident. An altercation occurred between the officer and the subject, Tyler Miller of Kansas."
"It was later determined the officer was injured and treated on the scene by EMS personnel. Miller was shot and transferred to a medical center and later declared deceased."
"The investigation is ongoing, as such, no further information will be released at this time," stated Glenn Milnor, FBI Special Agent Media Coordinator for the Phoenix Field Office.
The Hutchinson law firm of Bretz and Young, representing the Miller family, said in a statement:
“According to the FBI, while driving on a curvy mountain road, Ty apparently lost control of his pickup truck and went off the road where his vehicle hit a large rock. It is unclear exactly what happened next, except to say that after Ty got out of his crashed vehicle, a U.S. Forest Service officer shot Ty near the scene of the accident. The FBI has stated that Ty was not armed. The FBI has further stated that they are conducting a full investigation and anticipate turning the matter over to the U.S. Attorney’s Office to determine what, if any, charges will be filed against the U.S. Forest Service officer.”
The Sedona Red Rock News reported the shooting occurred at 4:15 p.m. Friday on State Route 89A, near the Rainbow Trout Farm, and involved a female U.S. Forest Service employee. The FBI was called in because the incident happened on federal land.
The Coconino County Sheriff's Office, the Arizona Department of Public Safety and the Sedona (Arizona) Police Department assisted in the investigation, but they referred all questions to the FBI.
John Green of The Hutchinson News contributed to this report.