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Shirt fundraiser to benefit family of fallen Smith County Deputy Bustos

Relentless Defender, the group selling the shirt, said the fundraiser will be open through Sept. 4.

TYLER, Texas — Editor's Note: The attached video is from Aug. 5, 2022. 

Proceeds from a shirt honoring fallen Smith County Deputy Lorenzo Bustos will go toward the officer's family. 

Bustos, 29, was killed in the line of duty overnight July 29 when a suspected drunk driver struck the deputy during a traffic stop. He was on his last day of training with the Smith County Sheriff's Office when the wreck happened.

Relentless Defender, the group selling the shirt, said the fundraiser will be open through Sept. 4 and all profits will be donated to the Friendly Baptist Church's Deputy Lorenzo Bustos Memorial Fund.

The church's fund is donating directly to the Bustos family. 

Bustos was a loyal member of Friendly Baptist Church in Tyler. He married his high school sweetheart Gloria and they had three children together (ages 8, 5 and 4). 

Before coming to Smith County, Bustos worked at the Henderson Police Department and the Rusk County Sheriff's Office. 

He began his law enforcement career in 2012 at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice as a corrections officer and was promoted to sergeant in 2016. 

He graduated from Chapel Hill High School in 2011. According to his obituary, Bustos was known as the "class clown who consistently had a bright smile and could make everyone laugh."

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