Posted on November 23, 2016

Wayne State University Police Officer in Critical Condition After Being Shot in Head

Samantha Schmidt, Washington Post, November 23, 2016

A Wayne State University police officer was in critical condition Tuesday night after being shot in the head while patrolling an area near the Detroit campus, police said.

Following an hours-long manhunt, police arrested a person of interest and took him into custody, Detroit Police Chief James Craig told reporters in a news conference.

The officer, 29-year-old Collin Rose, was investigating complaints of thefts from vehicles when he stopped a man on a bicycle, Craig said. Responding to the scene as backup, a second officer found Rose on the ground, suffering from at least one serious gunshot wound, the Detroit Free Press reported. The officer was not shot with his own gun, and police were still searching for the weapon used, the Associated Press reported.

Rose was taken to a hospital, where he was recovering from surgery Tuesday night, Wayne State University President M. Roy Wilson said, according to the Associated Press. The officer was with family members and was not “totally out of the woods,” Wilson said.

During the news conference outside the hospital, Craig said the mood inside was “certainly somber. … He’s in grave condition,” he said.

Authorities had not determined a motive for the shooting, “whether it was an ambush or something different,” Wilson said, according to the AP.

According to witnesses, the suspect frequents the area where the incident took place, in the Woodbridge area of Detroit, Craig said. When Rose stopped him, at about 6:45 p.m., he was riding a blue mountain bike, which was later found at the scene of the shooting, several blocks southwest of the Wayne State campus.

The manager of an apartment complex nearby told the Detroit Free Press she witnessed the shooting. The woman, Betty Evans, said she argued with a man on a bicycle, and when he wouldn’t leave the area, she called 911. She saw an officer arrive to confront the man.

“The officer was trying to get his hands behind his back,” Evans said. “We heard a shot and the officer went down, and we heard two more shots.”

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