By Eric D. Lawrence
Detroit Free Press
DETROIT — A rookie Detroit Police officer is being credited with saving his partner during a razor-blade attack Saturday by a woman with possible mental health issues.
The partners were responding to a call of a suspicious woman in the backyard of a house in 19000 block of Santa Rosa on the city’s west side when the attack occurred. As the woman lunged at his female partner, the officer stepped in and was attacked, with the woman slashing him on the face, Detroit Police spokesman Sgt. Michael Woody said. The officer was in temporary serious condition at DMC Sinai-Grace Hospital, but is expected to recover.
“He saved his partner. He took the attack instead of her,” Woody said, noting that the officer had “multiple lacerations to the face, which resulted in significant blood loss.”
Despite his injuries, the officer worked with his partner to subdue the woman and arrest her. The officer and his partner did not know the woman had a razor blade between her fingers when they approached her, Woody said.
The woman, who may have mental health issues, lunged as they were speaking to her, Woody said.
Residents in the Bagley neighborhood said the home has been vacant for months. About 10 police cars responded around 9:30 a.m.
The case could be used to bolster the department’s argument in favor of equipping officers with TASERs, which Woody called a “great intermediate weapon.”
Woody said department guidelines would have allowed the officers in this case to use deadly force. A TASER, which can disable someone with an electric shock, could have ended the encounter earlier, Woody said.
He said department officials would like to see TASERs issued to police in conjunction with body cameras to ensure complete transparency.
“We want to make sure we earn that trust,” Woody said, acknowledging that there has been resistance to allowing Detroit Police to carry TASERs.
Ron Scott of the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality is among those who oppose the idea. “These are not toys, these are lethal weapons,” Scott said, referencing a pair of deaths in recent years in Warren after police had used TASERs. “We don’t see the need for it.”
Copyright 2014 the Detroit Free Press