Sarah Knysz case will go to circuit court in Manistee

Sarah Knysz

MANISTEE — A Lake County woman connected to the shooting of Michigan State Police Trooper Paul Butterfield was been bound over to circuit court in Manistee County today. Sarah Knysz,

Sarah Knysz, 20, of Luther, is charged in Manistee County with unlawfully driving away a vehicle. She appeared in Manistee County’s 85th District Court today. In Mason County she has been charged with accessory to murder, after the fact and unlawfully driving away a motor vehicle. She is also pregnant. 

On the evening of Sept. 9, Trooper Paul Butterfield was shot in the back of the head during a routine traffic stop on North Custer Road in Free Soil Township. The Knyszs were apprehended several hours later following a gunfight near the Dublin General Store.

The Manistee County case doesn’t involve the actual shooting in Mason County; rather, it involves the alleged crimes that occurred a short time after the shooting.

Eric John Knysz, 19, her husband, has been charged in Mason County with murder of a police officer, felony firearms, carrying a concealed weapon, auto theft and being a second time offender. In Manistee he is being charged with receiving and concealing a stolen firearm, carrying a concealed weapon and assault with a dangerous weapon.

The couple is being lodged in the Mason County jail.