Birmingham Schools Confirm Death of West Maple Elementary Teacher Harry Berkowitz

Longtime West Maple Elementary School teacher Harry Berkowitz died Tuesday, Birmingham Public Schools Superintendent Daniel Nerad said at a late afternoon press conference at the administration building.

Police are investigating his death, but officials would not comment any further about related police situations in Royal Oak and Franklin that unfolded earlier in the day.

Franklin-Bingham Farms police officers responded to 26000 block of Charles Lane, just north of the Birmingham border this morning and discovered the dead resident, a press release stated. The victim's identity was not released Tuesday afternoon, pending notification to relatives. The Oakland County Sheriff's Department is assisting with the investigation at the scene, and no further details were immediately available.

Berkowitz had nearly 47 years of service with Birmingham schools, most recently serving as a reading support teacher at West Maple. It was a full-time position where he worked with small groups of students, mostly fourth-graders.

Nerad said he visited West Maple, a K-5 school of about 600 students, at about 2 p.m. to inform staff. Nerad continued that families of current West Maple students have been notified and that the district is actively working to respond to needs of both students and staff.

"We have to let this school respond to the adult need as well as the children need in that building," Nerad said. "This is a hard thing for them to go through—young children in that building dealing with a long-standing teacher that worked with many of their siblings and touched the lives of a lot of kids."

Birmingham schools will send district psychologists to work with students at West Maple, Nerad said. The district also has an employee assistance program designed to provide help for Berkowitz's colleagues.

Royal Oak Connection

Franklin police requested the assistance of authorities in Royal Oak upon learning that a homicide suspect fled to a home in the 2200 block of Sprague Street shortly before 10 a.m., a statement form the Royal Oak Police Department stated.

Officers responded to the area and evacuated nearby residents because they considered the man armed and dangerous.The Oakland County Tactical Team responded to the scene and deployed a remote-controlled robot with audio and video surveillance to search the home. was used to check portions of the interior of the residence for the suspect.

Members of the Southeast Oakland SWAT team then searched the house and found Thomas Ian Matthews, 33, dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, the release said. Matthews was a Franklin resident.

There was no comment made with regard to any possible link between the Royal Oak situation that culminated with the discovery of dead body shortly before 3 p.m.

The Franklin Police Department leads the ongoing investigation.