DETROIT — An off-duty officer with 13 years on the city's force opened fire with a "high-powered rifle" on fellow officers Monday afternoon, wounding two before they shot and killed him.
The highly trained officer was "asking for suicide by cop" and struggling with a mental health crisis, Detroit police Chief James White said at a news conference Monday evening. The officer had been off work and recently had returned to "full duty."
The events unfolded when officers from the 11th Precinct responded to a 9-1-1 call for a "suicide in progress" near Davidson and St. Aubin streets around 2:26 p.m., White said at a news conference. White said the person threatening suicide was a police officer in the department and was wearing his uniform at the time of the shooting.
"Upon arrival, they hear gunshots. The suspect is identified as a member of our department. He is a member of our special response team. He is off duty. He is threatening suicide. He is asking for suicide by cop," White said.
White said the 45-year-old off-duty officer was shooting in the air when police arrived, and officers took cover.
"He approaches the vehicle that they are taking cover behind. He shoots the vehicle in the rear of the vehicle multiple times. He strikes two of our officers, one in the leg and one in the thigh area," White said. "One officer returns fire, fatally wounding the officer in question."
The officer was working through a serious, physical "degenerative condition" and had been off work for a while but just returned Oct. 3, White said. He had no previous mental health issues, he said.
"We were hoping that things were moving in the right direction ... from what I understood, that it was a positive thing for him," White said.
The wounded officers were in stable condition Monday evening, White said.
"The officers who have responded are heroes," White said. "Once they recognized it was one of our own members, they still had to do their job and make sure that everyone else was safe."
The deceased officer, whose name was not released, was alone at the time of the shooting and had not worked earlier on Monday, White said.
"I will not be releasing a lot of detailed information at this time out of respect for the family and members of our department until everyone is notified," White said.
The special response team he was a part of handles some of Detroit police's most sensitive cases, White said.
"They go after the most violent perpetrators. They go to barricaded gun people. They go to people who are barricaded in homes and in buildings, such as he was, active shooters," White said. "They are extraordinarily trained in what they do, and they get some of the best training that we have to offer."
Michigan State Police will handle an investigation, White said.
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan called the incident a "tragedy for the city."
"The worst call I get is one that says officers have been shot, and we are fortunate today that the two officers who were responding here that their injuries are not life-threatening," Duggan said. "It's a reminder of the courage the officers in this department show every day. They went to that scene knowing they were going to be confronted by a highly trained and harmed officer in the department who was having significant mental issues."
White said the department will offer grief counseling for officers. "We're not immune to the mental health crisis in this city, in our country and our state," White said. "It affects everybody."
Detroit police responded to a record 7,554 mental health-related calls in the first seven months of 2023 and an average of four every day involved armed citizens. In response to a rising number of mental health-related cases, police announced an overhaul of the department's Crisis Intervention Team program in 2022. The department now has dedicated officers who only respond to mental health-related calls.
Law enforcement personnel also are 54% more likely than people with other occupations to die of suicide, according to a 2021 study that analyzed data from the National Occupational Mortality Surveillance database.
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