Highway sign dedication set for fallen Cowlitz County deputy

LONGVIEW — Officials are set to unveil Friday a highway sign along state Route 411 memorializing Justin DeRosier, the Cowlitz County Sheriff Office deputy killed in the line of duty in 2019.

The dedication ceremony will start at 4 p.m. at the Cowlitz County training facility, the blue building just south of the Hall of Justice, according to a sheriff’s office press release.

The ceremony will proceed to the sidewalk along southwest First Avenue in front of the Hall of Justice, where the Deputy Justin DeRosier Memorial Highway sign will be unveiled in its permanent location.

A matching sign will also be mounted on West Side Highway in Castle Rock near Four Corners General Store.

The dedication was approved by the Washington State Legislature, which requested the transportation commission to name state Route 411 after DeRosier from milepost 1.5 near Kelso to milepost 12 in Castle Rock.

DeRosier, 29, was fatally shot on April 13, 2019, after checking on a motorhome blocking a road in Kalama. He died in the following day in the hospital.

After a 22-hour manhunt, suspect Brian Butts, 33, was killed in a shoot out with police in Kalama and officials say they found about $3,000 worth of methamphetamine on him.