Detroit police shoot and kill murder suspect after shooting at 5th District

STRAIT – Police officers shot and killed a man Tuesday morning who opened fire on the 5th District of the Detroit Police Department.

Detroit Police Chief James Craig said it all started around 11:15 p.m. Monday when the man shot and killed a 28-year-old woman near Grand River and Warren avenues. The shooting erupted during a dispute over the custody of a child.

This man then approached 5th District early Wednesday morning – around 5:15 a.m. – in a black SUV. He parked in the compound, got out of the SUV armed with a high powered rifle and started firing shots at the police station, police said.

Fast facts:

• A man shot and killed a woman Monday night near Grand River and Warren avenues.
• Detroit Police said the same man opened fire on the Detroit Police Department’s 5th District at around 5:15 a.m. Tuesday.
• The man was fatally shot by officers after a short standoff in the parking lot of a closed business on Conner Street.
• Local 4 initially reported that this was linked to a burglary at Harper Food Service on Harper Avenue. This was not the case, as the chief of police later explained.

The lieutenant at the office called for help, Craig said, and the units responded. However, the suspect fled the area. He hired a police car which responded, firing at least one bullet at him. The bullet hit the windshield and an officer inside was hit by shards of glass on his forehead. He suffered a minor injury.

The suspect then sat inside the SUV in the parking lot of a closed company. Craig said officers knew he was armed and dangerous. They determined that after the Monday night shooting, a text message was sent to the family saying, “I told you I was going to kill (the woman) if my child was taken away.” The man also referred to the police and a judge in the text message.

Craig said a Special Response Team (SRT) broke down and moved closer to the armored vehicles. They saw the man holding an AR-15 to his chest. They asked him to put the gun down, but he shook his head “no,” Craig said. There was an exchange of gunfire between the suspect and SRT.

The man was killed just before 8 a.m.

No other officer was injured.

Craig said it was the 31st suspicious or high-risk boarded up incident in his department this year.

Some people living nearby woke up to the gunfire.

“I heard three shots. It looked like it was an AR-15. I heard three shots. So I go out to get my coffee, everything is blocked, ”says a man who lives in the neighborhood.

Craig said people going to work at the Jefferson North Assembly Plant down the street were rerouted when the area was closed to traffic.

NOTE: Local 4 initially reported this was related to a burglary at Harper Food Service on Harper Avenue. It was not, as the chef explained later.

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