Northeastern basketball community remembers, honors late Richmond officer Seara Burton
FOUNTAIN CITY, Ind. — “I had just talked to her.”
That’s what Brent Ross said the night before Northeastern honored 2012 graduate and former Richmond Police Officer Seara Burton, who died Sept. 18, 2022, after 39 days of fighting a gunshot wound she sustained to the head in the line of duty.
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Ross coached Burton her freshman and sophomore years at Northeastern when he was the head of the girls’ basketball program. He took over the boys’ position, which he still holds today, before Burton’s junior year and admitted he “wasn't a big part of her life” after that.
A smile would still come to his face when he received her phone call.
Burton needed some information during a traffic stop. The man she pulled over, whose license was suspended at the time, said he knew Ross.
“She calls me and goes, 'Hey, do you know this guy?'” Ross recalled. “I said, 'Yeah. Let me guess, he's driving?' She said, 'Yep.' And I said, 'Scare the living crap out of him because he's got to quit driving.'”
What she did afterwards is up to your imagination; those who knew Burton know she would have had some fun with that scenario.
Ross called back later to make sure everything was OK, and it was. As their catching up went on, Burton mentioned her mom was selling her Jeep, and Ross was interested in adding it to his car lot in Richmond. This was late last summer, just before the calendar turned to August.
Monday, Aug. 8, Burton helped her mom get the Jeep ready to go.
Tuesday, Aug. 9, Ross came by to pick it up.
Wednesday, Aug. 10, Burton was shot.
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“That’s how short life is. That’s how fast it can happen,” Ross said. “You’re just talking to her, and then boom.”
She was 28 years old.
“All for her.”
That’s what sophomore point guard Ava Mikesell said after Northeastern’s win over Centerville, before which was a remembrance ceremony for Burton.
In the 39 days between Burton’s incident and her death — the last 18 of those days were after doctors determined she wouldn’t recover and stopped her life support, showing just how much of a fighter she was — the Richmond community, all of Wayne County and much of the state of Indiana came together to support her.
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That support continues today, but the most visible showing of it since her funeral came Dec. 2 in Northeastern’s Larry Moore Gymnasium.
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Cody Dudley had been named the Knights’ new head girls’ basketball coach just four months prior to the shooting. As a Wayne County Sheriff’s Department officer himself, Dudley said having an event for Burton during the season was a “no-brainer.”
There wasn’t an open seat in the gym. The stands were full, and there were plenty more people cramming the hallway doors just trying to get a view.
“Everybody says the same thing about her: a genuine, caring, kind person. Her energy is infectious,” Dudley said of Burton after that game. “Tonight’s bittersweet to see everybody come together to celebrate her, but my heart breaks because she’s not with us.”
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Northeastern Assistant Principal Clayton Smith started the 10-minute ceremony by saying a few words about Burton, ending with the following:
“She loved her family and was a very strong and passionate person. Seara will be remembered for her laughter, her smile and her sense of humor. She had an incredibly positive outlook and a compassionate nature. She is a true hero.”
Then, the lights went black, and a slideshow with pictures of Burton came on the projector with Hardy’s “Give Heaven Some Hell” playing over the speakers. A 30-second applause followed the ending.
That’s when Burton’s family members were recognized on the court. Some of Burton’s former Northeastern teammates presented them with a custom basketball, and the high school presented an encased No. 22 jersey — the number Burton wore — to display outside the gym “so we can continue to honor and remember Seara every time someone passes through our halls.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, No. 22, Seara Burton,” Smith said as another 30-second applause filled the room.
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The Knights went on to beat Centerville 82-28 in what can be described as a spirited performance, like they were playing for something beyond the basketball court.
“We knew she was once a part of this team, part of this school and she walked the same steps we did,” Mikesell said. “We knew we needed to fight for her, be there for her and show out for her.”
The Knights did that all season, wearing warmup shirts with Burton’s name and No. 22 on the back and a custom police badge patch on the sleeve. Mikesell said they wear Burton so they know she’s always with them.
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“To them, she’s one of them. They feel that closeness to represent her and the uniform,” Dudley said. “Before the season, when the passing happened, they knew it was a big deal, but to see that she walked in their shoes made it an even bigger deal to them. They say all the time that they’re playing for her. That’s been the theme of our season is it’s bigger than ourselves.”
That night “means the world” to Dudley.
“It's like she’s still here.”
That’s what Ross said two weeks after the ceremony, admitting it’s hard to talk about Burton.
He wasn’t feeling the greatest the night of the ceremony anyway, but Ross couldn’t stay for the game because of the emotion that came over him. He still remembers Burton as the teenager with spiked-up hair and a headband who was always asking him to open the gym for her, and seeing the other girls he used to coach and all the emotion surrounding Burton that night was too much for him.
“It breaks my heart,” Ross said. “I’ve kind of just withdrew from it. That’s why a lot of people might not even know (I coached Burton). It’s hard … She was a good person.”
Mikesell didn’t know Burton personally, but like she said earlier, she’s walking the same steps, so it feels like she’s known her forever. That’s the kind of impact Burton left on the people she came in contact with, the kind where even if you don’t know her, somebody will tell you all about her.
“Watching everyone, and the video and all the tears just showed all the respect from everyone,” Mikesell said. “It was a really emotional time, obviously, but it really showed everyone’s respect toward her all coming together as a community.”
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Not only was Burton a good person, but she was a good basketball player, too. When in doubt, you could always find her at Northeastern or the Williamsburg Community Center with a ball in her hands. She showed so much promise before high school, Ross said, that he convinced Cory Ryan — 1999 Northeastern graduate and the all-time leading scorer for the boys’ program at the time — to coach the eighth-grade girls’ team just for her.
“She was that good,” Ross said. “We were trying to build that program back up, and she was one of the focal points of that.”
Burton tore her ACL during her eighth-grade year, but she still played the rest of the season, showing “the kind of toughness and player she was.” That injury slowed her progression as she got to high school, and she tore it again as a junior, but she still graduated as one of the most successful players and influential leaders to come through the program.
The toughness, the determination and the leadership. All of that is why Ross wasn’t surprised at her career choice.
“She was one I never had to worry about being successful in life. She was going to put in the time and do the work no matter what profession she chose,” Ross said. “Her choosing to be a police officer, to protect and serve — I think we've heard it all from everybody on how great she was and how she took her job serious.”
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It was Burton’s dream to become a K-9 handler, and she got to live out that dream for the last five months of her life. She’ll always be remembered at Northeastern and in the Richmond community.
“You just don't realize she's gone … It's like she's still here, you know?” Ross said. “It's hard to believe, but her memory will live on forever.”
Zach Piatt is a reporter for The Palladium-Item. Contact him at zpiatt@gannett.com or on Twitter @zachpiatt13.
This article originally appeared on Richmond Palladium-Item: Northeastern basketball community remembers, honors late Seara Burton
