By Ben Schmitt, Detroit Free Press
Detroit police are questioning two brothers in connection with the early Monday morning shootings of two officers, one of whom died on the city’s southwest side.
Police arrested the brothers at a home on Sussex near West Seven Mile several hours after two Fourth (Fort-Green) Precinct officers were shot during a traffic stop on Gilbert near Michigan Avenue at about 2 a.m.
Officer Matthew Bowens was shot and killed at the scene and his partner, a female officer, was shot and is in critical condition at Henry Ford Hospital. Commander Craig Schwartz of the Major Crimes Division described her condition as “very critical.”
“I have an officer hanging on for dear life. This exemplifies the commitment and danger our officers face. This is a job that they love, that they do on a daily basis. This is probably the hardest thing a chief of police wants to talk about. It’s not anything I would’ve expected this early in my tenure,” Detroit Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings said.
Schwartz said the officers made a routine traffic stop of a dark blue 1989 GMC Sierra pickup truck. During the stop a suspect exited the driver’s side of the pickup truck and approached the officers’ scout car, opening fire on the female officer in the driver’s seat, Schwartz said.
The woman’s partner gave chase while calling for backup on his radio and exchanged gunfire with the suspect before he was shot and killed, Schwartz said. At least 22 empty shell-casings were found at the scene.
Both officers, who have not yet been named, are described as in their 20s and relatively new on the job.
“His family noted that he wanted to be an officer from as far back as they can remember. This is the only thing he wanted to do with his life,” Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick said of Bowens.
Police recovered the pickup believed involved the incident several blocks from their home.
Detroit Police Commander Charles Barbieri, formerly of the Fourth Precinct and now with the Fifth (Jefferson) Precinct, said he knew the two officers when they were rookies.
“This is very personal,” Barbieri said with tears running down his cheeks outside Henry Ford Hospital. “Two officers getting shot in the street in the middle of the night, and for what?”