BRONSON, MI (WTVB) – The man who was ordered to serve a year in the Branch County jail for attacking a Bronson firefighter last summer has passed away. Several sources revealed to us that 28-year old Aaron Van Vorst died on Monday, although the Michigan Department of Corrections hasn’t yet confirmed his death. Van Vorst was sent to jail November 3, 2014, but Branch County Circuit Court Judge Bill O’Grady on February 19, 2015 suspended the rest of his sentence to be served on a tether while he also was to complete his 2-year felony probation period.
When Van Vorst was sentenced, it was noted that he had suffered from congestive heart failure. His release from behind bars occurred on the day that the courts took action on other prisoners as well to lower the inmate population at the jail to bring an end to the county’s first jail overcrowding emergency of 2015.
It was June 2014 that Assistant Bronson Fire Chief Kenny Stutzman was kicked in the stomach by Van Vorst at the scene of a Matteson Township House fire. When he was sentenced, Van Vorst apologized to Stutzman, telling him he didn’t mean to hurt anybody. Van Vorst was angry because he thought the fire department response time to put out the flames that heavily damaged the family’s two story farmhouse on Wattles Road was too slow.
