(WWJ) A Dearborn police officer will not be charged in the deadly shooting of a man while responding to a brutal domestic assault and home invasion.
Police say the victim, 39, told James Lukasiewicz she wanted to break up with him on September 26, 2020. The following day, police say he broke into her home through a bedroom window around 6 a.m. while she was sleeping in her home on Park, in the area of Monroe Street and Michigan Avenue.
After he entered, he stabbed her multiple times and threatened to kill her if she called the police, according to investigators. She managed to fight him off and hid in the bathroom while she called 911. During the call, she told officers her boyfriend (Lukasiewicz) broke into her apartment and attacked her with a knife.
Officers arrived about five minutes later. Lukasiewicz refused to open the door and again threatened to kill the victim if police entered. At 6:30 a.m., one of the officers broke down the door. Both entered—one armed with a taser gun, and the other had drawn his gun.
Once inside, they found the suspect still stabbing the woman in the bathroom, according to police.
They demanded he stop stabbing her, but he kept doing so. Officer A also grabbed him by the shirt to try to pull him off of her. Police say Officer A fired two shots at the suspect "in defense of the victim" and struck him in the back.
Lukasiewicz died from his injuries later the same day.
The woman had "serious stab wounds to her neck and face which caused life threatening amounts of bleeding and a collapsed lung."
However, she did survive.
"In Michigan, the law provides that a person has the right to use deadly force to defend others, if at the time they acted there was an honest and reasonable belief that others were in danger of death or serious injury," the release said.
No charges will be issued: "Officer A's actions were justified. He acted in lawful defense of the stabbing victim in this case."
