By Mandy Miles and Gwen Filosa
Beloved Key West teacher and basketball coach Dexter Butler died suddenly on March 2, when a freak accident shattered the community. Butler’s body was found in a storm drain outside Key West High School, police said. He was 37. No foul play is suspected.
Monroe County Schools Superintendent Theresa Axford said 37-year-old Dexter Butler, the son of Bill and Anita Butler, drowned after falling into a storm drain outside the high school gym.
“His keys fell down the drain,” Axford told Keys Weekly. “He was reaching for them, lost his balance and fell face first, then drowned in 18 inches of water in the drain. Really a tragedy on many levels.”
At midday, Key West police were at the high school at 2100 Flagler Ave. The driveway leading to the gym was blocked off with yellow crime scene tape. Small groups of students, teachers, other coaches and Butler relatives clustered on the campus in disbelief.
Police called it a death investigation, saying it doesn’t appear suspicious, but they said it was too early to release a cause of death or speculate on exactly what happened.
“I can’t release anything on an open death investigation until detectives get the autopsy report and the case is closed,” police spokeswoman Alyson Crean told Keys Weekly two days after Butler’s death.
On the morning of March 2, Key West police and fire departments were dispatched to the high school, responding to a report of an injured person.
“Upon arrival, units observed an adult male in a storm drain near the school gymnasium,” KWPD said in a statement. “The investigation is ongoing. The body has been recovered and identified as Dexter Butler, of Key West, who is a teacher at Horace O’Bryant School and the high school basketball coach.”
The death investigation was taking place on a Saturday when people were at the school. Teens were on campus for team sports.
School officials initially canceled all sports activities for the rest of the day. But the Butler family wanted the evening baseball game to happen as a tribute to the man many in Key West knew as “coach Dex,” coach Ralph Henriquez told Keys Weekly before the game started.
Conch baseball players, many of whom had Butler as a teacher at HOB, or as their JV baseball coach a few years ago before he started coaching basketball, also wanted to play in honor of Butler, who as a KWHS senior hit .475 with 28 RBIs, 22 runs, 3 home runs as 13 stolen bases, according to his records at the University of South Florida.
“I left it to the kids after the Butler family said they wanted us to play in honor of Dexter,” Henriquez said in the dugout before the game. “So we’re playing this game in his honor tonight.”
The Conchs defeated Spanish River 3-2 at Rex Weech Field that evening.
A community mourns
Dexter Butler followed in the footsteps of his local sports legend father Bill Butler in becoming a Key West basketball coach.
Butler grew up to coach KWHS basketball on the court named in honor of his dad.
The younger Butler often posted about his players on his Facebook page. The latest one was from Feb. 11:
“Our season came to an end last Thursday at the hands of Gulliver Prep,” Butler wrote. “I cannot be more proud of the strides these young men made from last off-season to this basketball season. Next season will be something special, but with great expectation comes great responsibility.”
Reports of Butler’s death stunned the tight-knit island community. Hundreds turned out the night after his death at Horace O’Bryant School for a candlelight vigil.
Key West Little Conch Baseball page posted their condolences to Butler’s family on Facebook: “He was an amazing asset to our Key West community and will be greatly missed.”
All students at Key West High School wore red on Wednesday, March 6 to honor Butler, deputy superintendent Amber Acevedo told the Keys Weekly.A GoFundMe account, titled ‘Dexter will forever be in our hearts’ has been established to help Coach Dexter Butler’s family. Visit gofundme.com and search for ‘Dexter Butler.’
