Detroit police officers shot and killed a veteran cop who opened fire on them in an apparent suicide attempt on Monday afternoon.
The unidentified 45-year-old shooter, who had 13 years of experience on the city’s police force, opened fire on his fellow officers with a ‘high-powered rifle’ – injuring two before they returned fire, according to The Detroit News.
He had been struggling with his mental health and was ‘asking for suicide by cop,’ Chief James White announced at a news conference hours after the officer’s shocking death.
Sources have told WXYZ that the officer told the 911 operator on Monday that he felt that the police department did not care about what officers like him were going through, that he suffered from back pain and he felt like he was not supported.
But when asked about those reports, the chief claimed the officer said a lot of things on the scene, and not all of it added up because the officer was in a mental health crisis.
He noted that the cop had been off work recently and had recently returned to ‘full duty’ on a special response team, known as SRT, WXYZ reports.
The cop was wearing his uniform at the time, but was off-duty at the time of the shooting, which occurred after officers from the 11th Precinct responded to a 911 call for a ‘suicide in progress’ at around 2.26pm.
They then found that the person who was threatening suicide was a cop.
‘Upon arrival, they hear gunshots,’ White recounted.
‘The suspect is identified as a member of our department. He is a member of our special response team. He is off-duty.
‘He is threatening suicide. He is asking for suicide by cop,’ the chief said.
The officer was shooting into the air when cops arrived, and they took cover behind a vehicle, but the shooter soon approached the vehicle and started firing into the rear, White said.
‘He strikes two of our officers, one in the leg and one in the thigh area,’ the chief said.
‘One officer returns fire, fatally wounding the officer in question.’
The officer had been working through a serious ‘degenerative condition’ and had been off work for a while, but returned on October 3, White said.
He had no prior mental health issues, and had recently rose to the rank of sergeant, WXYZ reports.
‘We were hoping that things were moving in the right direction,’ the chief told reporters. ‘From what I understood, that it was a positive thing for him.’
But, the chief said, the special response team that the officer was part of handles some of the city’s most sensitive cases and receives military-style training.
‘They go after the most violent perpetrators. They go to barricaded gun people. They go to people who are barricaded in homes and in buildings, such as he was, active shooters.
‘They are extraordinarily trained in what they do, and they get some of the best training that we have to offer.’
The chief also said that the wounded officers were in stable condition, as he praised them as ‘heroes.’
‘Once they recognized it was one of our own members, they still had to do their job and make sure that everyone was safe.’
Michigan State Police will now handle the investigation into the shooting, which Mayor Mike Duggan called a ‘tragedy for the city.’
‘The worst call I get is one that says officers have been shot, and we are fortunate today that the two officers who were responding here that their injuries are not life-threatening,’ he said.
‘It’s a reminder of the courage the officers in this department show every day. They went to that scene knowing they were going to be confronted by a highly-trained and harmed officer in the department who was having significant mental issues.’