Three Grand Traverse County residents honored for stopping Walmart stabbing suspect

Three Grand Traverse County residents were honored for the split-second actions that helped end the July 26, 2025 Walmart stabbing in Garfield Township, where 11 people were injured before deputies secured the scene. Sheriff Mike Shea presented the Michigan Sheriffs' Association’s Citizen’s Medal of Valor to Derrick Perry, Matthew Kolakowski and David Kelly during the association’s Summer Conference on June 7.

Kelly was unable to attend the ceremony, but Perry and Kolakowski received their medals in person before a gathering that drew representatives from more than 60 Michigan counties. The Citizen’s Medal of Valor goes to private citizens who voluntarily come to the aid of a law enforcement officer or another citizen at great personal risk and without a personal motive or stake in the outcome.

Dispatch began receiving calls at 4:43 p.m. about a man with a knife stabbing people at the Garfield Township Walmart, and deputies arrived three minutes later, at 4:46 p.m. By then, multiple citizens, including one armed with a pistol, were already confronting the suspect and keeping him from leaving.

Authorities identified the suspect as Bradford James Gille, 42, of Afton. The attack involved a folding knife and began inside the store before continuing in the vestibule and just outside the Walmart. Munson Medical Center expected all 11 victims to survive. The injured ranged in age from 29 to 84, and one victim was a Walmart employee.

Gille faced one count of terrorism and 11 counts of assault with intent to murder, and later proceedings found him competent to stand trial.

Kolakowski was at the Walmart with his 13-year-old daughter, her friend and his brother-in-law when the attack began. He tried to stop the attacker with an empty shopping cart before Perry confronted the suspect with a personally owned pistol.