Bradley Massman
mlive.com
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — In a backyard, six Grand Rapids police officers surrounded an armed man who had threatened to kill his family.
Officers commanded 46-year-old Eddie Deans Jr. to put his “hands up” as police tried to apprehend the fleeing man in a backyard on the city’s southeast side.
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The encounter ended with one officer firing four to five shots at Deans as he allegedly lunged toward police. Deans was pronounced dead at the scene.
Interim Grand Rapids Police Chief Joe Trigg released video clips on Wednesday, June 3, from body-worn and in-car cameras of the violent encounter that led to the fatal shooting.
Trigg said the department has not made any conclusions on whether the officer involved acted consistently with the law, department policies and training. Michigan State Police is currently investigating the shooting.
About seven minutes of video was released Wednesday, showing various angles of what police encountered that day.
The incident started around 1:15 p.m. Saturday, May 30, when Deans’ mother called 911 to have police respond to her home on Alpine Avenue NW.
She told a dispatcher Deans threatened her grandson with a knife, she told MLive/The Grand Rapids Press.
When an officer arrived, dashcam footage shows Deans throwing a lit Molotov cocktail at the police cruiser, while spraying the windshield with lighter fluid.
Deans, still armed with a knife, then fled on foot through the neighborhood and tried to carjack a motorist. A woman screamed loudly as she fled from the vehicle, footage shows.
Police tracked Deans down in a backyard at Widdicomb Avenue NW near 12th Street. A police K-9, Digo, was released to subdue the man. Deans stabbed the dog in the head, as well as in its protective vest.
Officers deployed less-lethal weapons, but they were not effective. As Deans crept around a staircase, officers commanded him to put his hands up. Video shows Deans lunge toward police with one officer firing, killing Deans.
Deans struggled with mental health issues for years. He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, anti-social personality disorder and borderline personality disorder while in prison, Kent County Probate Court records said.
Deans also had a troubled past. He was 16 when he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 1996 and was sentenced to 12 to 50 years in prison.
He and two others were convicted in the December 1995 killing of Badri Denise Mullen, who was kicked in the head by the three after refusing to settle a crack cocaine debt.
Deans was paroled from prison in February 2025.
Digo, the police dog, has been released from an animal emergency hospital and is recovering at home with his handler.
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