KALAMAZOO, Mich (February 7, 2014) – A Kalamazoo man shot and killed by Public Safety Officers during an ongoing sexual assault investigation has been identified by his relatives.
FOX17’s Troy Campbell spoke with Wanda Coskey, who identified the deceased as 42-year-old Brad Allen Mason, her son. Online records with the Michigan Sex Offender Registry show Mason was a registered sex offender, with a past conviction for Accosting a Child for Immoral Purposes in 2006.
His registered address is the same location where a deadly confrontation took place with Public Safety Officers Friday night. Police have not officially released the name of the deceased.
Officers were sent to his home in the 100 block of Dutton St. around 5:30 p.m., not far from Bronson Hospital, to follow up on a sexual assault that happened earlier in the week. Official details on what led investigators to his location have yet to be released.
In a press release earlier this week, detectives announced they were looking for a white male in his mid to late 30’s with dirty blonde or brown hair and a short beard connected to the abduction and sexual assault of a 24-year-old woman in the area of Fairview and University Streets in Kalamazoo early Wednesday morning. Investigators say the suspect grabbed the woman and forced her into a red truck and drove away from the area, sexually assaulted her, then released her near the area where she’d been abducted.
Relatives of Mason told FOX17 Mason owned a red truck, but there’s still no official word that this was a reason officers arrived at the Dutton Street home on Friday night.
Kalamazoo Public Safety Chief Jeff Hadley says when the officers made contact Friday night, the individual displayed what appeared to be a handgun and pointed it towards officers. In response to the immediate threat, officers fired their service weapons striking the individual. Chief Hadley says in a press release that medical attention was immediately administered to the individual, who was later pronounced dead.
“They said Brad was on the steps of his apartment”, said Wanda Coskey. “And the police saw him with a gun and asked him to put it down, I guess 3 times, I didn’t know of any gun.”
Coskey told FOX17 a friend was on the phone with Brad during the confrontation with police, and heard the event unfold.
“A friend of Brad’s was on the phone and heard the police say 3 times put the gun down, and then there was 5 shots fired”, said Coskey.
Investigators with the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety haven’t released specific details on the deadly shooting, which is now under investigation by the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety Professional Standards Bureau and the Criminal Investigations Division, which is standard protocol and procedure in this type of investigation.
FOX17 looked into Brad Mason’s criminal history, which reveals past arrests and convictions:
- 1991 – Felony Breaking & Entering
- 1994 – Misdemeanor Indecent Exposure
- 1994 – Felony Breaking & Entering (multiple counts)
- 2001 – Misdemeanor Indecent Exposure
- 2005 – Felony Auto – Operating a Chop Shop
- 2006 – Felony Criminal Sexual Conduct involving Children
Mason served prison time for some of these offenses, and was discharged in October of 2012.
Further details of the deadly officer-involved shooting are expected at a news conference scheduled for Monday, February 10th.
