DETROIT (AP) — A 60-year-old man suspected in the shooting of two Detroit police officers has been arrested and the officers are in stable condition, the police chief said Thursday.
The officers were conducting an investigation in an area where narcotics are sold Wednesday night on the city’s west side when they approached a man who was “acting fidgety,” Police Chief James Craig said. The man pulled out a gun and fired before the officers returned fire, Craig said.
One officer was shot in the neck and “the early diagnosis is he’s going to be OK,” the chief said. The other officer was shot in the ankle and body armor stopped two bullets to the chest, he said.
The shooter fled, sparking a police search that ended with the arrest late Wednesday, Craig said. The man arrested had been shot in the leg — an injury police believe was from the initial exchange of gunfire, the chief said. He is being treated at a hospital.
Craig told WWJ-AM on Thursday morning that he expects the man to be charged.
Police sent a warrant request to the Wayne County prosecutor’s office, but a decision about charges had not been made as of Thursday afternoon, a prosecutor’s spokeswoman said.
The shooting occurred near where Wayne State University officer Collin Rose was fatally shot in November. Craig said the officers who were shot Wednesday were part of a stepped-up police presence in the area since the 29-year-old Rose was shot.
The chief said police are investigating whether there’s any connection between the Rose shooting and Wednesday’s. Investigators have been asking for tips from the public in Rose’s death. Charges against a man initially arrested in the case were later dropped.
