DETROIT (WWJ) – A suspect is in temporary serious condition after an officer-involved shooting on Detroit’s east side Thursday night.
Assistant Detroit Police Chief David LeValley says around 7 p.m. two officers in the 9th Precinct walked into a BP gas station in the 9400 block of Conner Street, near Harper Avenue and had a conversation with the clerk.
While the officers were inside the gas station, they noticed a man who “engaging in suspicious behavior” and trying to avoid contact with the officers.
The officers allegedly noticed the man was rolling a marijuana joint and went over to talk with him, LeValley said. As they were speaking to the 31-year-old suspect, they found out he was armed with a handgun and the suspect tried to flee.
LeValley says an officer grabbed the suspect, but when he broke free for a second time, he pulled out a gun and officers shot him multiple times. He believed the two officers fired a total of seven shots.
The suspect was taken to a hospital and was listed in temporary serious condition. LeValley said the suspect was alert and talking with officers.
No one else was injured in the incident.
LeValley said the officers were not called to the gas station, but were making a routine stop and talking with the clerk.
He said it was “not normal” for someone to be rolling a joint in the gas station.
“Possession is legal, but I don’t think you can just roll a joint inside a gas station. You have to do it in a certain manner,” LeValley said during a news briefing Thursday night.
This was at least the third officer-involved shooting this month. A woman was fatally shot after pointing what turned out to be a fake gun at people at a gas station on Dec. 19. Earlier this week police shot and killed Dwayne McDonald, who was accused of killing his wife and her 13-year-old daughter on Christmas on Detroit’s west side.
LeValley said he’s not sure why there have been so many shootings in recent weeks.
“I don’t know what motivates individuals to do what they do, but we do see a lot more firearms out on the streets than we ever have in the past, so officers are forced to deal with that,” he said. “When you run into a lot of individuals that are armed, some of them make decisions to try to fight with the officers, to pull the guns out, point them at people, point them at police officers, fire at police officers, rather than be taken into custody.”
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