Video: Warren Michigan Police Stop Man with Knife, Domestic Violence History

By Susan Smiley

Source The Macomb Daily, Mount Clemens, Mich.

The 41-year-old Warren man killed March 10 in an officer-involved shooting had a history of domestic violence and assault, according to Warren police and court records.

Kenneth Anthony Beno had active warrants out of Macomb County Circuit Court and the 37th District Court at the time of Monday’s confrontation and also has previous convictions for disturbing the peace, disorderly conduct, and domestic violence.

“This is an incident that is tragic on so many levels,” said Warren Police Commissioner Eric Hawkins. “We have an individual who chose, for reasons that are not fully understood by us at this time, to put himself in a position where officers had to use deadly force in order to protect themselves, resulting in a loss of life.”

At a press conference March 13, a recording of Beno’s ex-girlfriend’s call to 911 was presented. The woman told the dispatcher her boyfriend was hiding under her bed with a pocket knife, that she was afraid, and that he stated he will attack police officers if they try to apprehend him.

During the call, the woman told the dispatcher that Beno had exited the home and was walking north on nearby railroad tracks.

In response to that call, four Warren police officers came to the scene in the 27000 block of Railroad Street in the Twin Pines Mobile Home community.

Police body camera video shown at the press conference showed Beno walking along a railroad track and Warren police officers could be heard shouting for him to stop, drop to the ground and drop the knife he was wielding.

At one point, Beno could be heard shouting to officers “shoot me.”

Beno appeared to ignore all of the commands and did not appear to be affected when one of the officers fired a taser gun. He was shown advancing toward two other officers even after being hit with the taser.

A total of six shots were fired by two officers with four of those shots striking Beno in the upper body area.

Beno was taken to a local hospital by Warren fire personnel where he succumbed to his injuries.

“We don’t take this lightly; we understand the magnitude of what happened,” Hawkins said. “The officers made a split-second decision to discharge their firearms to neutralize a threat and, based on the information and the facts that we have right now, we stand by their decision.”

Hawkins said the situation appears to be a “suicide by cop” and that Beno struggled with mental health issues and had attempted and threatened suicide previously.

“When we hear from a victim that the suspect had a knife and explicitly told that victim of his intent to harm officers, when you look at his movements as the officers approached and made verbal commands, when you see him continue to walk towards officers and say things like ‘shoot me,’ it certainly looks like a person who had suicide by cop as his intent,” said Hawkins. “It put our officers in a position that no officer wants to be in.”

Warren police are conducting an internal investigation of the shooting and the four officers who responded to Monday’s 911 call are on paid administrative leave.

Hawkins said it is within the best practices for an accredited police agency to conduct its own investigation and that it is not necessary to turn that task over to the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office, Michigan State Police or another law enforcement entity.

Kenneth Beno was shot and killed by Warren police on March 10 when officers were called to the scene of a domestic disturbance and Beno refused to drop the knife he was carrying or to stop walking toward police officers.(PHOTO WARREN POLICE DEPARTMENT)

“The facts are fairly straightforward, and we stand by our officers,” said Hawkins. “But then we look at the underlying causes for this incident, and it is a little more complex because we are looking at a crossroads between mental health and domestic violence.”

According to Hawkins, over half of the aggravated assaults and 70% of homicides to which Warren police respond have a domestic violence nexus.

“Last year alone, we responded to over 1,500 calls for service involving individuals who have some sort of mental illness,” said Hawkins. “This year alone we have responded to 270 of those calls which translates to four calls per day.”

Hawkins said several months ago, Warren police began building a crisis intervention team to handle mental health calls and have instituted emotional intelligence training for all officers. In addition, he said the Warren Police Department is working to help connect residents with community resources that can help with mental health and domestic violence issues.

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