DETROIT — The man accused of killing a Melvindale police officer over the weekend was discharged from parole less than two months before he opened fire at the young officer, according to prison records.
Michael Lopez, 44, spent most of the last 12 years in the Michigan Department of Corrections, serving a 10 1/2 to 30-year sentence for a 2011 carjacking and resisting, obstructing or assaulting a police officer case in Detroit, according to corrections department records. He was discharged from parole June 22. A second carjacking case from two days prior in September 2011 and a felony carrying a concealed weapon charge were dismissed when he pleaded guilty.
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He served just over the minimum sentence and was discharged from parole in June 22, less than two months before he allegedly shot and killed Melvindale Police Office Mohamed Said, 26, on Sunday. Lopez was arrested late Monday evening in a residential area of southwest Detroit after eluding police for more than a day.
Detroit police and the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office declined to discuss the circumstances of the 2011 carjackings.
Detroit police told The Detroit News to file a public records request. Assistant Prosecutor Maria Miller said prosecutors weren't ethically able to comment on a defendant's criminal history outside of court.
Said was shot late Sunday morning after he saw people with bags hanging around a car wash at Oakwood Boulevard and Dix Road in Melvindale and went to investigate. A man police believe to be Lopez fled and Said followed, resulting in a struggle, said Melvindale Police Chief Robert Kennaley. Said tried to use his Taser to arrest Lopez, but Lopez allegedly shot him and fled on a bicycle, Kennaley said.
This sparked a manhunt for Lopez, who was arrested just before 6:30 p.m. Monday in the 3400 block of Gilbert Street near Livernois in Detroit, according to Michigan State Police.
At an emotional press conference earlier Monday evening at the Melvindale Police Department, one of Said's younger brothers, Ahmed Said, said Monday he believed Lopez would have harmed someone else had his brother not encountered him. Ahmed Said described his brother as a person who loved everyone.
"'Mo' took the bullet for somebody," Ahmed Said said.
On Monday, Kennaley said he first met Said, a Melvindale native who'd been with the police department for just over a year, when he was a high school soccer player, and kept in touch with him through Said joining the Melvindale Police Department. Kennaley said he had dreams of joining the K9 unit or detective bureau.
“He’s not just an officer. He was born and raised here, and this community loved him," Kennaley said.
Said recently graduated from the Wayne County Regional Police Academy and was sponsored by Melvindale Police Department. Melvindale was the only police agency he had worked for, Kennaley said.
Said is the third law enforcement officer in Michigan killed on duty in roughly a month.
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