OK. I'm rolling. And right.
The first one is it's pretty generic.
So can you just talk about the uptick
in violence that we've seen so far in
20232023? Well, I wouldn't say
there was an uptick in violence,
but we have seen gun violence already
this year and that started with.
New Year's Day at 12:02 in the morning
was the first person to die by gunfire.
And yeah, it's unacceptable.
And as you saw, we saw over this
weekend we had a a murder outside
a club called Metro Division St.
The South side of town.
And John tell White is the victim's name,
father of two.
And that's a open case,
open investigation.
We're gonna do everything we can
to bring this shooter to justice.
We have had some other incidents.
There was a domestic related
shooting also over the weekend
where an individual forced his
way into his ex girlfriend's
apartment ended up shooting.
An adult male in there,
it really in the presence of officers when
officers were flagged down, she said.
There was a man that had pushed
his way inside my house and as
the officers went to approach,
he actually shot her friend on the porch
in the presence of the officers who then
surrounded the house and miraculously
through patients in negotiation,
we're able to take him into custody as well.
They took that man who had been shot
in the chest very critically and put
him in a police car and drove him to.
To the hospital.
They gave him first aid on scene.
And got him there and he's expected
to make full recovery, so.
Yeah. Are you seeing, are we seeing any
specific trends with the, with the violence
what we saw in there, you know we had
three pretty significant incidents.
I mentioned the, the death rate pretty
much at the turn of the year at 12:02
on New Year's Day and then you know
we had a murder which appeared to
be a very targeted murder outside
the the club on Division Street
and then we had a domestic related
incident on the 1000 block of Alto.
Southeast, so three very different incidents.
You know that that first death,
it seems very apparent that
it was celebratory gunfire.
It was a group of friends who were
shooting off their guns together,
most likely an accidental shooting.
Of course,
we still look at it from the potential
of being a homicide and we'll continue
to do so until we have all the answers,
but three very distinct different situations.
So as far as trends,
it's not something that
we're seeing fortunately.
So you probably talked about this,
the January 15 shooting that
was remind me which one
that was? Balto OK, yeah,
it says. Talk about the response to the
January 15 shooting, where an office,
I guess officer had to transport
the victim. Is that common?
So. And January 15th,
officers were in the area of the 1000 block
of Alto and actually a woman came out.
So they saw, she saw the police car
and she flagged the officers down.
She let them know that a man had
pushed her way away inside her house.
And as the officers were developing
developing a plan to go and take action,
two men actually came out on the front
porch and one of them shot the other
one in the presence of the officers.
He then the offender that immediately ran
inside and barricaded himself in the house.
The officers were able to to bring that man.
Off the porch,
give them immediate first aid.
You know, our officers all carry
individual first aid kits with things like
tourniquets and chest seals and things,
so they use their emergency
first aid training to.
Comfort him and to, well,
what's the word I'm looking for to?
Provide some immediate assistance for what
could have been a deadly chest injury.
It was a through and through
gunshot wound to the chest.
So they were able to provide him that
first aid and threw him in the back
of a police car not through him.
They brought him into the back of
a police car and took him to the
hospital because oftentimes doing that
you know with the difference between
life and death is often the moments
that it would take while they were
waiting for an ambulance to arrive.
And so the officers have the ability to
make that call and say this individual
has this life threatening injury and if
the you know hospitals only a minute and.
Away and the immune system,
you know, 2 minutes away,
we're gonna take him directly
to the hospital.
That's what they did.
And he's expected to make a full recovery.
Didn't realize that's what we talked.
Yeah, that's OK. Actually,
I should have expanded it more,
so he asked me. That's no problem.
Ask me again and maybe I
won't fumble in the middle of
it. Yeah, we'll make sure. OK.
Are the domestic violence,
yeah, this is on an uptick.
We haven't seen a trend of domestic
violence increase for the year so far,
but it's, you know,
still early in the year,
we're still in January last year,
we did see an increase in violence,
not just in the Grand Rapids but
really across all of Kent County.
So it's a, it's an alarming thing.
Some people across the country have blamed,
you know, coming out of COVID.
I don't really know what the answer is,
but it is important for everyone to know
that if you're in an abusive relationship,
there are resources out there.
There are places for you to go today.
You don't have to stay in that house today.
Someone will make sure
that you're accommodated,
you have a safe place to stay and
there's so many resources out there.
We just really need victims of
domestic violence to know because too
many times we've seen them in Grand
Rapids and elsewhere turned deadly.
No, that's right.
The update on the division St.
Shooting, did we talk about that in
just a little bit.
So update on on the division St.
Shooting is you know,
we've identified the victim,
John Tell White Jontel was a father of two.
Young girls.
He was apparently targeted in this shooting.
We're doing everything we can.
It's still a very open investigation,
but we're moving as quickly as
we can to identify this offender
and place him into custody so
that we can provide some justice
for this grieving family.
OK and then.
Yep. Matt. They want me to ask about
responded to a middle school today where
a teen was found with a gun and talked
about your your spot. Yeah, we do. So
anytime there's a gun recovered at a.
You know, Grand Rapids,
whether it's public school or private school,
police will come and we'll
take possession of that gun.
So we didn't stop this child,
you know, Grand Rapids public safety,
public school safety department,
we have a very good close
working relationship with them.
They have those close connections
with the students in the school.
So my understanding was there
was no violence involved in
the arrest of this individual.
The gun was safely removed.
Our officers were called,
we took possession of the guns.
And you know,
because of the age of the of the child,
I can't get into.
Too many details of of who he is or
everything surrounding the incident,
but it'll,
you know,
likely be referred through the
Juvenile criminal justice
system for appropriate services,
so you won't be able to.
Do we know what the team's intent was
that? I don't know. Yeah,
I simply don't know the teens intent.
However, what I can confirm that it
was a real, functioning loaded handgun.
So extremely dangerous to have in a school.
You know, extremely dangerous to
have in the possession of anyone
who's not trained to use it,
much more so a 13 year old in a school.
The last question is, what would you
say to parents of the kids that go
to that school about that situation?
Well, I'll say when I first heard about it,
you know, my initial reaction was,
is it a student?
Is it somebody from the outside?
What were the intention?
Because then you get a broader
idea of is this something that
could have turned into a school?
Violence incident.
I don't think that's the case.
I think that there was no intent
to use this gun inside the school.
There was no brandishing of
the gun or anything like that.
And clearly the system worked
how it's supposed to work.
Where we got the information
that this young youngster did
potentially have a firearm,
we were able to to, well,
GRP S actually was able to safely
secure it without any violence,
without, you know,
the gun going off or anything like that.
So it seems like the the safety
features of this system worked very
well today and I don't think there's
anything to be concerned about as a
safety matter going forward for any
of the the families in that school.
That's all I have, thank you.
Ohh that was quick and painless.