GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — After one of its officers fatally shot Da'Quain Johnson, the Grand Rapids Police Department found a loaded gun near the 32-year-old's body, believed to have been in his possession.
This new detail and others are part of the Michigan State Police report on the shooting, which FOX 17 received on Monday through a Freedom of Information Act request.
On February 18, Johnson was shot and killed in the parking lot of an apartment complex on the city's southeast side during a struggle between him, two GRPD officers and a K9.
According to the Michigan State Police report, the officers had been chasing Johnson, who was riding a bicycle, with the belief he was "likely armed with a handgun."
While GRPD has released portions of body and dash camera video from the pursuit and subsequent shooting, the state police report notes "parking lot surveillance cameras" also captured the deadly incident.
In a review of this footage, an MSP detective said Johnson, who fell to the ground after dismounting from his bicycle, appeared "to reach into his right hip area with his right arm before being tackled by a GRPD K9."
During the struggle, the detective said Johnson's "right elbow" then appeared to "flare outward," a motion "consistent with pulling an object from his waistband."
In body camera video, officers can be heard telling Johnson to "let it go" and "drop the gun." Then, seconds after he fired the fatal shots, one of these officers claimed to have seen the barrel of Johnson's gun pointed at his face.
According to the MSP report, the Grand Rapids Police Department later recovered a tan and black 9mm pistol on the ground near Johnson's body, loaded with "eight rounds in the magazine and one round chambered."
The report also said, while attempting life-saving measures, healthcare workers found on Johnson's body a plastic bag containing around 10 grams of suspected crack cocaine.
Grand Rapids
Civil rights attorneys react to shooting of Da'Quain Johnson
On Friday of last week, Johnson's mother, Angelica Johnson, spoke on her son's death during a virtual press conference with her attorneys.
"I will not let his legacy be remembered in a negative way," she said. "He will not be defined by past mistakes or what assumptions people want to make about things they have not facts about."
Here, attorneys also played an additional angle of the shooting captured by a bystander and used it to claim Johnson did not point a gun at officers.
The video has not been independently verified by FOX 17.
"There is no law anywhere in our country that says because an individual has a gun and it's loaded, it means they can be murdered or they can be shot — unless they pose an imminent threat to somebody else," attorney Ven Johnson said.
"They try to make the rules so different when it's our children they kill," attorney Ben Crump said. "I mean, think about all the people in America who have drugs on them. Do they deserve the death sentence?"
Grand Rapids
City manager reviews OIS policies one month after Da'Quain Johnson's death
Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker told FOX 17 on Monday that he will "let everyone know" when he has made his charging decision in the case.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Grand Rapids Police Department said, "We are committed to the integrity of the MSP investigative process and the Kent County Prosecutor's review."
