Just want to give you guys an update.
We had an officer involved shooting today.
Our police officers were in the
area following up on an anonymous
tip of a wanted homicide offender.
They located the individual.
The individual began to shoot at them in the
area of Jefferson and LaBelle.
It was sort of a running gun battle
where the individual ran a couple
blocks shooting at the officers.
We had three officers that returned fire.
The demand fell in the area of
1400 block of Cass. He is deceased.
It's unclear at this point in time if
he is deceased by his own hand or by
the shooting of the police officers.
Any officers injured in that? Fortunately,
none of the officers were hit by gunfire
and we understand this might
be Patrick. You were
looking for Patrick Jones?
Right. So we just released
information about Patrick Jones
being wanted as a homicide defender.
He killed Tamika, right,
a few weeks months ago actually now.
And we've been looking for him.
Active warrant form. We're not
naming this individual at this time,
but I will say we did appreciate all the
coverage that the media did provide in,
in getting his name and his image
out there to get some anonymous tips.
So that's who you were searching
for when this comes back, right?
That's correct.
OK, any idea how many shots he fired?
Numerous shots.
And like I said, three
officers returned fire.
We have an extremely long
crime scene over two blocks,
so we have shell casings,
we have spent ammunition
and we don't have a round
count at this point in time.
Michigan State Police,
I know, I just walked over.
They have come on scene,
they have arrived and they're going to
be taking over the officer involved,
shooting part of the investigation.
And where did you say this? Or the
shots were fired or they.
It's so they, the officers initially
count encountered this man in the
area of Jefferson and LaBelle and as
soon as he made note of the officers,
he began firing at those officers.
That firing did not stop
until the 1400 block of cast.
So it was a very long running gun battle.
So was he in a house or was he in a card
you spotted on the street? How did that
when the officers encountered him
they encountered him in the alley,
I believe. Yeah. So I think,
and this is all preliminary I believe.
They come out of a house that we had
information on and that's he may know
to the officers and that's when this
started. Was he on a bike? That
I don't know. I was done at the crime scene.
I saw the area. I did not see a bite.
When can people expect to see body camera
video of what happened in this incident?
Definitely not today.
I know in the past we've been
able to to do it in one day.
I'm hopeful that talking to the Michigan
State Police that they'll be OK with it.
It seems pretty cut and dry.
So it would be nice to assemble this
video and hopefully get it out tomorrow
afternoon if logistically we can do it.
But now we're not talking just one camera,
we're talking at least three
cameras of the officer.
So but I'll just say for commitment
for me as soon as possible,
are you thinking it's self-inflicted that
are you thinking that's a possibility?
I think that's a real possibility but
until or if the information plays
out with the investigation, I won't
know for sure. Well,
what makes you think that?
I mean, did some of
your officers see him?
Put the gun to himself,
all right. The the
preliminary and this is keep in
mind this is 1400 block of cast,
it's a residential St,
It's all homes there.
There's a lot of people
and from what I heard,
whether it was the officers
or a resident there,
they thought that it was self-inflicted,
but I don't have concrete
information at this time.
And how far were the officers away from him
when that happened? You know,
that's a good question that
I don't know the answer to.
Yeah, I did see the gun on the scene.
It looked to me like something
automatic, 9 millimeter.
And so just for clarification,
you received a tip through,
was it like silent? Exactly right. Yeah.
Silent observer ticket tip on A wanted
homicide and that was Patrick. Patrick.
That's what I believe it to be,
but we haven't identified
him at this time.
With the officers, what's the
status of those three officers?
I mean, is it the, the routine,
the administrative leave,
how does that work?
That's correct, yes.
So those officers will be on
administrative leave as the
investigation plays out in the state.
Police will conduct that investigation.
That is correct.
OK all right. Or anything like that.
The officers squad car was
struck numerous times.
I saw it. There were so many
shots fired by this individual
that there's a real chance
that there were residences
struck as well. And so I do have
officers that are doing a full canvas
of the area to make sure that there's
no other bystanders which were which
were hit also. The officers like
taking cover behind the I'm sure,
I'm sure they were.
I haven't talked to the officers
yet and we're gonna let SP do
do that initially as well.
So we'll get that information,
but I don't know the logistics of
how it all went down and how many
officers responded to the tip.
We had numerous officers respond.
I think we had probably
6 on scene. Yeah. Three officers fired
and was this part of a a team that is
looking for you know wanted suspects
fugitive team. That's right. That is correct.
Fugitive Task Force is that
that's a that's a good name for
there's an acronym for I think it's
a great team Grand Rapids and I can't
remember us but it's a task force
in conjunction with the US Marshals.
Grand Rapids, what do you think about that?
Extremely dangerous.
Extremely dated. I think I've,
I've spoken with you before even that
it looked like a 9 millimeter to me.
That was 9 millimeter.
Rounds can go straight through siding.
Extremely dangerous.
Alright, yeah. Fortunate that
none of our officers were there.
How long do you expect
this seem to be out here?
It's gonna be a few hours.
We it's a huge scene and we wanna make
sure we get it right and we want to
make sure we do everything that the
Michigan State Police wants as well.
So they're specification.
So it's going to be a few hours.
And there was a school closed to nearby
school from what I understand all the area
schools. We reached out immediately to
groups, to their Director of Security
and Chief of Staff and advised them to
any schools in the immediate area while
it was still a running gun battles.
Lock everything down.
But that was it was just a few moments
that that ended OK and how long did
this whole thing last start to finish?
I'd say maybe
3 minutes. How thankful
are you that no officer?
Extremely thankful.
No officers were hurt.
Extremely thankful that no
one on the street is hurt.
Like I said, this is a residential area,
so the potential is there.
And like I said,
he was a wanted homicide offender,
so he already has. We know
he's got the, you know, lack
of respect for human life. So
that was a real concern.
Make that decision to dismiss the school.
Can you explain to people why?
And it would not be a decision
to dismiss the school,
would be a decision to contact the
school and to say shelter in place until
the police contact you and say that
there's nothing else because you know,
this, this guy's mobile.
We don't know. He could get on a bike,
he could get a new car,
he could turn into an active
shooter situation or a,
you know, a hostage, hostage,
barricade type situation.
So we want to make sure that that
obviously the children are safe.
There
was a part of the plan to
wait for him to come outside.
I mean, you know, as opposed to
going inside after a few judo.
That's right.
Well, this was very preliminary.
I think probably he made note of the
officers outside and and that's why
he came out and started shooting.
If we had developed information and were
able to corroborate it to the point
where we could get a search warrant,
we would very slowly and
methodically set up outside.
We'd make announcements over
the bullhorn saying, you know,
come out Grand Rapids police.
But it looks like this all
just unraveled so, so quickly
that there was a time for that.
The home that he came out of was at
his home or was that like a relatives
home? And I don't have the answer to
that question at this time. Yeah.
In what home? This is on LaBelle.
What? What street was this home
on again? And I mentioned,
I, I know it was in the area
of LaBelle and Jefferson,
but I don't have the House
number and I don't have the
House information this time.
Were there people on the street
when this gun battle was going on?
There may have been. This is a
residential block with a lot of people.
I'm not sure if there were or not.
If you would you encourage people
if they were out on the street?
Certainly a situation like this,
gunfire started extremely loudly.
And if you ever hear gunfire,
you know, always say to get low,
get inside and get low.