Charges reviewed in shooting death of WSU officer
The Wayne County Prosecutors Office was reviewing a warrant request Thursday from Wayne State University Police for a man arrested in the shooting of Collin Rose, one of their officers who died less than 24 hours after being shot in the head during an off-campus confrontation.
A spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office said in an email there would be no arraignment Thursday.
Rose, 29, is the first WSU officer to die in the line of duty, president M. Roy Wilson said in a statement Wednesday.
Slain WSU officer was ‘the guy you’d want helping you’
The K-9 officer’s death at about 5:45 p.m. Wednesday came hours after authorities announced a man suspected of shooting him has a history of “assaultive-type” crimes against police. Holt estimated more than 200 officers from area agencies had helped search for the suspect, and many showed up at Detroit Receiving Hospital after Rose was taken there.
The 31-year-old suspect, DeAngelo Davis, was arrested about 10 p.m. Tuesday a few blocks from the shooting, roughly three hours earlier near Lincoln and Brainard. Davis is known to authorities, said Wayne State Police Chief Anthony Holt.
Holt said Thursday that no weapon had been recovered and that the investigation is ongoing.
Funeral arrangements were still pending on Thursday.
WSU police and at least eight other agencies escorted Rose’s body to the Wayne County Medical Examiner in a procession Wednesday night, Holt said.
Within hours of Rose’s death, state and local officials offered condolences.
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan tweeted: “Tonight our hearts go out to the family and friends of Wayne State Police Officer Collin Rose. All Detroiters feel his loss terribly.”
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The university sent a text to students: “May you Rest In Peace, WSU Police Officer Collin Rose. In your short life, you made Wayne State University and the world a better place.”
University President Wilson said, “This is a tragedy felt by all of us — Collin and his family and friends, his fiancée, and our campus and community. Please keep Collin and his fiancée and family in your thoughts and prayers. Collin served Wayne State with distinction, and we owe those he left behind our deepest sympathies and our strong support.”
Gov. Rick Snyder said he was “deeply saddened” and described Rose as “well-respected by fellow law enforcement officers and the community for his work and his commitment to serving others.”
“Officer Rose was well-respected by fellow law enforcement officers and the community for his work and his commitment to serving others,” Snyder said. “May he rest in peace knowing that Michiganders are collectively mourning his loss and that we will support his family, friends and colleagues to the best of our ability while they grieve.”
Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette said Rose “served his university and the city of Detroit with honor and distinction.
“Officer Rose was doing his job, serving his community and protecting all of us, when he was tragically gunned down,” Schuette said in a statement. “Officer Rose was too young to have his life taken, and he leaves behind a family that will never be the same.”
Holt said counseling and debriefing would be offered for the department’s officers.
With lights flashing and sirens sounding, more than 40 police cars and emergency vehicles escorted Rose’s body from Detroit Receiving Hospital to the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office on Wednesday evening. Departments joining Wayne State police in the procession included Detroit, Novi, Royal Oak, Hamtramck, Livonia, Dearborn Heights, Wayne County Community College District and Superior ambulance.
The line of vehicles sat outside the Medical Examiner’s building on Warren for about 10 minutes before dispersing.
“We’re considering this a tremendous loss of a great talent. He was a great officer for the community,” Holt said. “This was an officer who was one credit short of getting his master’s degree. This was an officer who did a tremendous amount in the short five years he was here.”
Holt said investigators are still trying to determine what prompted the shooting but believe Rose wasn’t targeted during his stop of Davis.
Court records show Davis has had violent run-ins with police before.
In May 2011, he was sentenced to 53 days in the Wayne County Jail after pleading guilty to two charges of assaulting a police officer.
In November 2010, he was sentenced to 56 days in the Wayne County Jail on charges related to two offenses: attempted forgery of license plates, and assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder.
Originally, charges in the latter case included two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon, one count of assault on a police officer and one count of malicious destruction of property, but those were dismissed.
Davis had previous violent contact with Wayne State officers in 2011 and 2014, Holt said.
Charges reviewed in shooting death of WSU officer
Sgt. Cary Glazer, then an officer for the department, recalled the 2011 incident.
Glazer said he was driving up Second Avenue, past Peterboro, with a trainee when he saw Davis in the middle of the road. Davis, Glazer said, “yelled violently” at the car to “get the (expletive) out of the road.”
Glazer got out of the car, followed by the trainee.
“Get out of the road,” he said to Davis, who “squared up, wanting to fight.”
Glazer said he pulled out his pepper spray, to which Davis responded by saying “Oh, you need to use that?”
“No, I don’t need to use that,” Glazer said, putting the spray away.
The trainee called dispatch, Glazer said. Backup cars arrived, and Davis was arrested after being tackled by a lieutenant, Glazer recalled.
Davis, described by police as a person of interest and then a suspect, was taken into custody Tuesday night after a “massive manhunt.”
“I can’t sugarcoat this, it is a tragedy of immense proportions,” WSU President M. Roy Wilson said at Wednesday’s news conference.
It was unclear where the man was found Tuesday night. Authorities said Davis was being held on outstanding misdemeanor warrants. Davis is expected to face charges in the shooting, but an arraignment date had not yet been scheduled Wednesday night, Detroit police said. Other details were not available.
His arrest was made through a collaboration between Detroit and WSU police, said Detroit police Officer Shanelle Williams.
The shooting investigation employed a “full-scale homicide task force,” Holt added.
“We can rest a little easier that he’s off the street,” Wilson said Wednesday.
Authorities say the 29-year-old Rose was a five-year veteran. Rose’s specialty was canine handling and he worked with a highly-trained Vapor Wake dog, which is used to sniff out bombs.
Holt said Rose performed “a lot of community service.” “He was
Addressing the media outside the hospital after the shooting, Detroit Police James Craig denounced the incident as a “threat on all of us.”
“This must end. It must end now,” he said of what some have called an assault on police officers across the country.
The loss reverberated nationwide, as well. CNN and NBC News reported on it. His death was noted on the Officer Down Memorial Page, which commemorates “law enforcement’s heroes,” and sparked sending condolences on Twitter from an account dedicated to remembering New York City officers.
Also on Twitter, one user wrote: “CollinRose could have been anyone’s brother, friend, son, husband, or father. His life mattered too.”
Authorities initially described the seriousness of the shooting as the “first, ever” of a campus police officer but later added another had been shot in the leg in a less critical manner more than 36 years ago.
Rose was “very young, very proactive” and made a stop of a suspect, who was on foot, “on his own,” Holt said. “He stopped, stated he was going to investigate a subject. The back-up was en route. When the back-up got there, he found the officer on the ground with a gunshot wound to his head.”
Holt said officers hadn’t determined why Rose stopped the man. The area of the shooting had a recent rash of car break-ins during which navigation systems were stolen, Holt said.
“We obviously haven’t been able to ask Officer Rose,” Holt said Wednesday.
Betty Evans, a manager at the Lincoln Apartments, near where the shooting occurred, said there was an altercation with one of the residents before the shooting. Someone had called 911 and the officer responded.
“The officer was trying to get him to put his hands behind his back and I’m assuming he didn’t want to,” she said.
Evans said she heard one shot. “When I looked out, the officer went down and I heard two more shots.”
Wilson spent most of the night at Receiving Hospital with Rose, his fiancée and his parents, Holt said. Wilson wore a hat celebrating the police force’s 50th anniversary.
“Collin was just doing his job,” Wilson said Wednesday. “And for that, we thank him.”
A text sent to Wayne State students Wednesday night read: “May you rest in peace, WSU Police Officer Collin Rose. In your short life, you made Wayne State University and the world a better place.”
The shooting follows the death of Detroit police Sgt. Kenneth Steil, who succumbed to his injuries Sept. 17 after being struck around his bullet-proof vest Sept. 12 by a suspect wielding a sawed-off shotgun. Steil, 46, was a 20-year veteran and headed the 9th Precinct Special Operations unit.
Another officer, Myron Jarrett, 40, who was assisting a traffic accident investigation, was struck and killed in a hit-and-run crash Oct. 28 and thrown 30 feet. Jarrett served with the Detroit Police Department for eight years.
Tuesday’s incident joined other shootings nationwide against law enforcement in what police call an alarming spike in ambush-style attacks and other shootings of police officers. A San Antonio police detective was killed in an ambush shooting Monday. In Missouri, a St. Louis police sergeant was shot twice in the face Sunday evening as he sat in traffic in a marked police vehicle. He was released Monday.
Police officers also were shot and injured during traffic stops in Sanibel, Florida, and Gladstone, Missouri, on Sunday night, but authorities have not suggested those were targeted attacks.
“This is not unique to Detroit,” Holt said. “This is going on everywhere.”
In his message Wednesday evening, Wilson acknowledged police officers’ duties and called on the public to back them.
“Our officers mourn with us, but these dedicated, professional men and women continue to serve us courageously, every day,” he said. “We can honor Collin’s memory best with our ongoing gratitude and support for all of our officers.”
Associated Press contributed.