DETROIT (WXYZ) — Members of the Detroit Police Special Response Team — DPD's highly trained, military-style unit — are prepared to respond to the most dangerous, unpredictable situations.
Nothing could have prepared them for the call that came in Monday afternoon.
At 2:26 p.m., Sgt. Jacob Moss — a 13-year veteran of the department and an SRT officer —called from a building at Davison and St. Aubin with a list of demands.
According to internal DPD notes taken by the 911 operator who answered the call, Moss wanted to talk to a negotiator, had a gun and was about to kill himself.
He told the operator that he wanted his fellow SRT officers to respond.
“Do not send regular (officers),” Moss is reported saying. “If they run in, they will get hurt.”
The call lasted more than 30 minutes. By the end, Moss was shot dead after opening fire on two responding officers, grazing one and striking another.
“I’ve never seen anything like this where somebody summons his brothers and sisters in blue, and he summons them to end his life,” said Tom Berry, a retired DPD lieutenant.
While the call was going on, the operator wrote that she could hear gunshots in the background. They came from Moss’s department-issued rifle and handgun.
It is not unusual for SRT officers to have their firearms with them outside of work.
“They take their equipment home because they’re on call 24 hours,” Berry said. “If we get a barricaded gunman, we call SRT.”
At the same time Moss was talking to 911, his commander placed a call to Moss’s cellphone and tried to talk the sergeant down.
It is not clear how long the two spoke.
According to the 911 notes, Moss complained that his “job has no compassion” and that he “has (severe) back pain.” Moss said he was “upset about injuries from the job.”
But according to department sources, the most recent injury Moss had reported stemmed from an off-duty incident in June.
Moss complained of physical pain he noticed after lifting weights, sources say, and started to use his sick leave. He would return to work months later in a limited-duty role.
Later on, according to sources, Moss asked his doctor to sign off on a full return to work.
Moss was back on Oct. 3, faced no work restrictions and helped serve at least one search warrant.
Eleven days later, he would take aim at his fellow officers who returned fire. Moss died on the scene.
“Think about those coppers that had to take the life of someone they love," Barry said. “That’s unfathomable.”
Contact 7 Investigator Ross Jones at ross.jones@wxyz.com or at (248) 827-9466.
