Editor’s Note: The following article includes mention of suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide or self harm, you can call the 988 Suicide & Crisis Hotline—previously known as the National Suicide Prevention Hotline— by dialing 988. Help is available.
GRAND RAPIDS (WWJ) A man brandishing an apparent gun died after Grand Rapids Police officers shot him during a confrontation feet away from a hospital, police said.
See the full media briefing (including the body cam footage) from Grand Rapids Police here
In a press briefing, Grand Rapids Police said dispatch received a 911 call from an ambulance leaving Trinity Health, on Friday November 8th, around 10:45 p.m. The caller reported a man in the road with a gun.
A second 911 call came shortly after from a woman who said she received a warning from a group of men on scooters while she was smoking outside Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital, at Jefferson and Wealthy, on the campus of Trinity Health.
“Three guys came out on scooters, screaming ‘the guy has a gun, and he’s like brandishing it in the middle of the road, and we could just see him walking in circles’” she told the dispatcher, in the 911 call played during the briefing. “…And (the man on the scooter) said he got to (the man with the gun), and he thought it was a cellphone in his hand. He turned, and you could see it was a gun. And he got it in his hand, holding it down to the ground.”
The woman told dispatch she did not see the man personally.
Presented during the press briefing; video from an In-Car Camera System of the first officer to arrive on scene shows a man in a dark hooded sweater and light pants walk out of a gated area across the street from Mary Free Bed Hospital, at Jefferson and Maple. He points the apparent gun forward—toward the cruiser. Only an abundance of street lights and police lights illuminate the otherwise dark hospital grounds.
In another set of videos from the In-Car Camera System and body cam of a second officer; police issue commands at the man.
“Drop the gun!” officers command about a dozen times.
“Hey, is that a gun? I can’t tell,” one officer calls out.
“He’s not being compliant…he’s pointing the gun at me,” an officer is heard saying, before gunshots ring out.
“Hey! Cease fire! Cease fire! Cease fire! Back up! Back up!" another officer yelled in the video.
In an earlier press release from the department, police said officers "immediately rendered" aid. The man, 38, was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Grand Rapids Police Chief Eric Winstrom said three officers fired their weapons—explaining the man first had the apparent gun pointed at his own head “like he was going to kill himself” and, when he noticed the officers, turned it on at least one of them in a “gunfight position.” About ten officers total were at the scene. According to Winstrom; from the first 911 call to the fatal shot, it all transpired in about five minutes.
Winstrom said the preliminary investigation suggested the man’s motive.
“In a canvas of this area, one of my officers actually encountered someone who said this gentleman had conveyed to them that he was intending to partake in what’s often called ‘suicide by cop’” Winstrom said. “A very difficult thing for everyone to process, our condolences go out to his family. I think there’s still a lot of progress to be made in the mental health treatment in our city, and certainly in our country.”
He added that his officers had contact with the man “several times” over the past month, making attempts to connect him with mental health services.
At closer look, the gun the man brandished appeared only to be a "gun-shaped object."
“What I saw did not appear to be a functioning firearm,” Winstrom said. “… To his credit, I think this individual did not intend to hurt a police officer, but this was his way of ending his own life.”
Winstrom said ‘suicide by cop’ has become more accessible due to portrayals of police procedure in the television shows, news; and due to the “ubiquity” of publicly available surveillance video, cellphone video, and social media.
“If you are a student of police procedure, whether its 'suicide by cop' or an officer involved shooting, you can look at these incidents and say— what steps did this individual take? I’m going to imitate that person, and I think the police officers are going to be in fear of their life and are going to shoot me,” Winstrom said. “And unfortunately, that appears to be what took place last night.”
Michigan State Police (MSP) took over all steps of the investigation— from the forensic evidence collected at scene, to interviewing officers and witnesses, and contacting the man’s family. The City of Grand Rapids Office of Public Insight and Accountability will also do a complete review of the case.
The three officers who fired their weapons are on Critical Incident Leave.
Windstrom said they are “physically okay”, but “shaken up.”
“It’s a devastating thing to be put in a position where you take another person’s life,” he said.
He added they also worry their names will be released during the investigation; that they will be attacked or threatened, and for the safety of their families.
“After the Patrick Lyoya incident, I had people showing up at my house. I had people threaten my family. I wasn’t even the shooting officer, I just represent the department,” Winstrom said. “I had death threats in the mail. I had death threats (at the station)…from across the country. I had people in California, who don’t know anything about me, sending me all the ways I should end my life.”
He said the officers are on leave for purposes of the investigation, as well as their mental health.
“We want to make sure they are ready and available to comply with all the requirements of the investigation, and of course, we want to make sure that they’re cleared by the prosecutor, assuming that’s the case, before they go back to the streets,” Winstrom said. “Also, it’s critically important for us to make sure they are emotionally and mentally ready to return to the streets. And have the resources they need.”
Winstrom said Grand Rapids Police Department has its own therapy room and department psychologist.
The man’s name will be released pending the completion of MSP’s investigation and at their discretion.