DETROIT (WWJ) – Detroit police officials are refuting claims from an online publication that the department “hampered” the investigation into the disappearance of 2-year-old Wynter Cole-Smith.
A report from the Lansing City Pulse published on Thursday afternoon claimed the department “refused a request from the Lansing Police Department to check out a location where cell phone data suggested the alleged kidnapper had been present,” citing an anonymous source.
Thursday afternoon Detroit Police Chief James White released a statement, saying the assertion by the reporter is “absolutely false and an abject failure of investigative journalism.”
“Instead of focusing on the heinous act of an individual in committing this horrific crime, this reporter chose to make this baseless accusation against a law enforcement agency whose members displayed their professional character by dedicating their entire summer to look for Zion Foster in a landfill last year,” White’s statement said. “Let me make this clear, we most certainly extended that kind of Herculean effort in trying to find Wynter Cole-Smith, which is supported by clear documentation by the Detroit Police Department. I welcome any substantive facts to say otherwise."
The report out of Lansing claims Detroit police “refused to act on the location data because Ingham County had not yet issued a warrant” for the arrest of Rashad Maleek Trice. The City Pulse report claims the anonymous source said the alleged “refusal to act” contributed to “an agonizing and frantic 36-hour search” for the toddler.
Trice was arrested Monday morning in St. Clair Shores after leading police on a chase. The toddler was not with him when he was arrested.
He was arraigned Wednesday on a long list of charges for what authorities are calling a “brutal physical and sexual assault” on Wynter’s mother.
Trice has not been charged in connection with the girl’s disappearance, as of Thursday evening. The girl was found dead in an alley Wednesday evening on Detroit’s east side near Coleman A. Young International Airport.
A pair of vigils are planned on Thursday and Friday in Detroit as the family mourns the toddler’s death.
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