MI - Dearborn Officer Fatally Shoots Unarmed Man

A unarmed man wanted on a probation violation warrant and suspected in a larceny was fatally shot by a Dearborn police officer following a struggle Wednesday afternoon on Detroit's west side, police said.
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Family members identified the man as 35-year-old Kevin Matthews, who they said was on medication for schizophrenia.

"They shot my son for nothing," said his mother, Valerie Johnson, wiping away tears. "He didn't have no weapon."

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Dearborn police say an officer involved in the fatal shooting of an unarmed Detroit man has been placed on administrative leave.
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Matthews was shot multiple times Dec. 23. Police have said he struggled with the Dearborn officer following a foot chase from that city into a nearby Detroit backyard.

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Dearborn police said the officer spotted Matthews, "who was known to be wanted on a probation violation warrant, and who escaped from officers earlier in the day after committing a larceny in Dearborn," walking in the area of Tireman and Greenfield in Dearborn about 12:30 p.m. Dec. 23.

"The officer approached the subject ... and the subject fled on foot," Dearborn police said. "The officer chased the subject and encountered him several houses away, in Detroit, where a struggle ensued.

"Subsequently, the officer fired his department issued weapon; striking the subject. The subject was pronounced dead at the scene ... "

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"Kevin Matthews was known in that area," Williams said at a news conference last week. "He went back and forth to the gas station all the time, known to be one of those who you would see and you would say 'Hey, Kev' as you walked down the street.

"It was also known ... that Kevin Matthews suffered from mental illness, suffered from paranoid schizophrenia ... which is a disability that officers and community members have to be very careful with when they're dealing with somebody like that."

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Police have interviewed a woman who says she saw a Dearborn police officer struggling with a man in a backyard on the city’s west side Wednesday, a fight that culminated in the officer fatally shooting him.
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“The witness said she saw a struggle,” Detroit Police Chief James Craig said. “We’ve talked to her, and will interview her again as the investigation moves forward.”

He said it’s unclear whether the woman corroborates the officer’s story. He claimed Matthews tried to wrest his gun from him as they struggled, according to two police sources.

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“I heard some arguing, and then it sounded like someone got slammed into a wood fence, because I heard the wood crack,” he said. “I looked (across his fence into the backyard of a home on Whitcomb) to see what was going on, and I saw a guy wearing beige pants and a purple jacket, kind of wrestling with a cop.

“They went in front of the garage (and out of view), and then I heard the man say, ‘Stop it! Stop it!’ Those were his last words; right after that, I heard five gunshots. Then I heard a police radio, and then a bunch of sirens.”

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Detroit police won't reveal if they have audio or video evidence related to last Wednesday's killing of Kevin Matthews, a 35-year-old mentally-ill man who was shot multiple times by a Dearborn police officer.

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Nancy Hamood-Strutz, an assistant to Dearborn Police Chief Ronald Haddad, confirmed officers have dashboard cameras in their police vehicles and wear body microphones, though they do not wear body cameras. Hamood-Strutz wouldn't confirm whether there is dashboard-camera video or body-microphone audio related to the Matthews shooting.

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Detroit Police Sgt. Cassandra Lewis of the Media Relations Department refused to tell MLive if audio or video evidence exists, adding the revelation could "taint or muddy" the investigation.

When asked how revealing the existence of such evidence might interfere with the investigations, Lewis said, "I'm not required to give you an explanation."

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katydid23 said:

So let me get this straight. People are expecting that an officer goes with an arrest warrant for a mentally ill felon, to try and take him back to jail, and if the felon runs, and is caught in a backyard, and begins fighting the officer, the officer is not supposed to shoot him to end the physical fighting? Is he supposed to just let the guy go or let the guy keep beating on him?

Who is going to want to take the job of trying to apprehend felons if they are not allowed to defend themselves in a street fight?

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SpriteGal said:

I'm pro-officer for the most part, but I don't think a physical fight automatically gives the officer the right to draw his gun and shoot somebody. There has to be more than just a physical fight. I can't see justification of shooting a guy to death over a physical fight. I can't.

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“Instead of wrapping presents with my baby, I have to bury my brother,” said 37-year-old Kimberly Matthews, sister of Kevin Matthews.

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katydid23 said:

So let me get this straight. People are expecting that an officer goes with an arrest warrant for a mentally ill felon, to try and take him back to jail, and if the felon runs, and is caught in a backyard, and begins fighting the officer, the officer is not supposed to shoot him to end the physical fighting?

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katydid23 said:

Looks like a justified shooting, in my opinion. He was a fleeing felon, running from an arrest warrant, fighting with an officer in a field, trying to get away. The officer had every right to defend himself, imo

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SpriteGal said:

Fleeing felons, and running from the officer don't give justification to shoot. Fighting with an officer very well might if it's life or death for the officer, but it's a case by case basis, and I haven't heard enough about this case. imo

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SpriteGal said:

Fleeing felons, and running from the officer don't give justification to shoot. Fighting with an officer very well might if it's life or death for the officer, but it's a case by case basis, and I haven't heard enough about this case. imo

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Montjoy said:

snipped and boldfaced by me

No, since you asked, I expect that the officer will shoot him. At least many LEOs on the job nowadays would.

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Woodland said:

He said it’s unclear whether the woman corroborates the officer’s story. He claimed Matthews tried to wrest his gun from him as they struggled, according to two police sources.

When more police arrived at the scene, a home in the 8000 block of Whitcomb, the officer was covered in mud, his uniform was ripped, and the belt holding his service pistol was loosened, Craig said.

When the officer arrived at a nearby hospital for treatment of minor injuries sustained in the skirmish, a police source said he wasn’t aware the suspect had died, and that he asked whether he was OK.

http://www.detroitnews.com/news/

Another 'he went for my gun' defense. Sorry, but stopped believing this a long time ago - one can only sell me the same story two maybe three times. What is new imo is, the loose gun belt. If I hear a loose gun belt in another story though - will not believe this one.

In order for me to start believing the 'went for my gun defense' I would now have to be sold on 'all the black guys in America got together and agreed that if they were ever tackled by LE - go for their gun'.

Also, 5 gunshots will pretty much ensure death. Not finding the statement that the officer didn't know this man had died credible.

All jmo.

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