LINCOLN PARK, Mich. (WXYZ) — A Lincoln Park police officer working a narcotics investigation was shot on Tuesday afternoon.
We're told the officer was shot in the leg. The officer was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
It happened in the area of Outer Drive between Fort Street and Jefferson.
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The suspect was also shot and was transported to the hospital. The suspect was in stable condition and expected to be OK.
The narcotics investigation was happening in a neighborhood near Austin Avenue and Montie Road. Multiple Lincoln Park police officers were conducting the investigation — some were in uniform and others were working undercover.
Michigan State Police, which is now leading an investigation into the shooting, say the suspect noticed the officers and took off. The suspect ran from the neighborhood toward an open area along Outer Drive. During the course of the chase, both the suspect and multiple officers exchanged multiple rounds.
Tyanna Horn lives right across the street from the lot on Outer Drive where police say most of the shots were fired but did not see the beginning of the exchange.
“He (suspect) was just running. The police tried to tell him to stop running and he didn’t stop running. It was like two more shots that were fired,” Horn said. “I was watching the baby, had her in my hand just playing with her and we heard shots and we ran in the house.”
“Once he (suspect) got past the sign a little bit, that's when we heard another gunshot, then he (suspect) fell," another witness Anthony Washington said. "Once he hit to the ground, he kind of looked like he was trying to crawl away.”
State police say a gun was recovered from the suspect. Using K-9 units, officers and drones, they’re now plotting out the crime scene to piece together exactly what happened.
“We'll start plotting out the crime scene. We have one of our drones up that are going to plot out the crime scene as well. Then a lot of it will be interviewing the officers involved and the suspect as well,” 1st Lt. Mike Shaw with Michigan State Police said. "Some of the officers have body cameras, some don't. So this is going to take us a little bit of time to work our way through, looking at different video and things like that.”
Shaw says state police will also do a round count with officers' weapons to figure out how many rounds were fired. However, Shaw says who fired first may be hard to determine.
"We may never know that,” Shaw said.
Detectives are continuing to investigate.
