By Tammy Stables Battaglia
Detroit Free Press
DETROIT — A 30-year-old Detroit man is dead after a shoot-out early Wednesday with Detroit police officers who were patrolling an east-side area plagued by robberies.
Two officers were patrolling near 8 Mile and Hickory, just west of Schoenherr, about 1:30 a.m. when they came across two men running from an alley, said police spokesman James Tate. Several individuals have been robbed in that area, he said.
As the officers got out of their car, one of the two men began shooting and hit the officers’ vehicle, Tate said. The officers returned fire, fatally wounding 30-year-old Andre Stinson. The other suspect ran away and was still at large Wednesday, he said.
Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office Investigator Lorita Prentice said Stinson was dead on arrival at St. John Hospital in Detroit from multiple gunshot wounds.
A police source told the Free Press that it was two plainclothes officers in an unmarked car who were fired upon. Other officers nearby immediately joined in, the source said.
Homicide Lt. Dwane Blackmon said the department’s internal affairs and homicide investigators are reviewing the case.
Tate said at least two and possibly more officers were placed on administrative leave while the shooting is investigated, which is standard procedure in such situations. The source said six officers were placed on administrative leave.
Since 2003, the Detroit Police Department has been under federal consent decrees mandating reforms as a result of a Free Press investigation that found police were killing civilians at a rate higher than any other big-city police force.
Copyright 2008 Detroit Free Press