By John Agar
mlive.com
GRAND RAPIDS, MI – A newly hired Grand Rapids police officer engaged in a shootout this weekend, the second time in a month that a new hire has been involved in such an incident.
This time, it ended in the death of a man who opened fire on police.
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Chief Eric Winstrom on Monday, Dec. 8, shared video of the violent weekend encounter with a domestic-assault suspect.
The 51-year-old man’s name has not been released.
The recently hired officer was among three officers on Saturday who unloaded firearms at the gunman during a high-risk traffic stop. Police were down the street after a woman – who reported a domestic assault earlier in the day – said the suspect had just sent her texts saying he had a gun and was going to kill himself. Police had set up near the suspect’s home to determine their next steps when he came out.
Police were near the suspect’s home to determine their next steps when he came out, got his in his vehicle and drove off. A field-training officer directed the new officer to park behind the suspect’s vehicle in the 1600 block of Tremont Boulevard NW as another patrol car pulled up.
“He’s stopped,” an officer said.
Police repeatedly told the man to turn off his vehicle when gunfire erupted, with an officer returning fire through the windshield while trying to disable the gunman and take cover.
In all, Winstrom estimated that the three officers – two with handguns and the third with a rifle - fired around 40 shots while the suspect fired a dozen. Police provided immediate help for the man but he later died at Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital.
No officers were injured but shots that struck their patrol cars showed they were “extremely close to getting hit,” Winstrom said at a press conference at police headquarters.
Winstrom has talked to the three officers involved.
It’s unusual to have new hires wind up in gunfights so early in careers. On Nov. 11, an officer, on the job two months, returned fire after a suspect turned and shot at the officer and a field-training officer.
No one was injured in the 1:40 p.m. shooting near Blaine Avenue SE and Adams Street, and the suspect was later arrested.
An officer spotted the 18-year-old suspect on foot and called out his name. The suspect turned and fired multiple shots at police who returned fire. That new officer has returned to work, the chief said.
Winstrom said the officers involved in the fatal shooting were rattled. He was concerned that the new officer – on standard paid administrative leave – might not want to return.
“With this officer who’s just a few months out of in-house training here, is this going to be his last day of work? Is he going to come into work on Monday and tell me that his job’s not for me? And I wouldn’t blame him if he did … . Most officers across the country go their entire careers without being involved in a situation like this.
“And, I’ll tell you, to have two of our brand-new officers involved in shootings this terrifying in such a short period of time is, is out of the norm, and just highlights how serious a job we have here.”
Police had responded to the man’s residence around 12:15 p.m. after a woman left and reported that an intoxicated man, armed with a gun, had threatened to kill her
Police could not make contact with him at his home on Strobel Avenue NW, near Fourth Street.
Just before 4 p.m. , the woman called 911 to report that the man was at his home, armed with a handgun. Police were planning a “safe approach” when they saw him leaving his home.
State police are investigating the shooting as an outside agency, which is standard procedure.
Winstrom said the information that he was released was preliminary and that no conclusions had been reached whether the officers’ actions were in line with department policy.
He noted that Kent County prosecutors would review the case once completed by state police.
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