Officer who was shot gets jaw surgery at UM, but reconstruction must wait

Officer Jeff Koenig, 48, the Saginaw Township police officer who was shot during a traffic stop early Tuesday, was taken into jaw surgery at the University of Michigan Hospital, the department announced Thursday.

That surgery lasted two hours, Police Chief Donald Pussehl Jr. said in a statement Thursday. While surgeons cleaned the wound, they weren't able to start reconstructive surgery yet because of swelling. Pussehl wrote that when the swelling goes down, those surgeries will take place.

Koenig, a 16-year veteran of the Saginaw Township Police Department, pulled over a white F-250 Super Duty just after 2 a.m. Tuesday, in the area of Tittabawassee and Bay roads.

When the motorist pulled into a parking lot, he pulled out a gun and shot at Koenig from the car before fleeing the scene, police said. After being shot in his face and shoulder, Koenig continued to send radio dispatches about the truck.

Fellow officers shortly arrived at the scene and transported Koenig to an area hospital. 

In the hours after the shooting, police identified a man named Joshua Rosebush, 29, as the suspect, and recovered the stolen truck he had used. About 11 hours after Koenig was shot, Rosebush was hit in an exchange of gunfire with police in Shiawassee County and arrested.

Michigan State Police 1st Lt. David Kaiser said Wednesday Rosebush was struck by a single bullet in the face and is listed in stable condition at a hospital.

"It's unknown when he will be released or when he will be arraigned," he said.

Kaiser also said prosecutors are trying to determine which county will charge Rosebush since his crimes were part of a sequence of events spanning three different counties and only one will be allowed to charge him under state law. Each county prosecutor would have to agree to it, he said, otherwise each individual prosecutor will have to charge him for crimes committed in their county.

Rosebush, meanwhile, is listed in stable condition, and is in the custody of the Michigan Department of Corrections, as he had absconded from parole in the weeks before Tuesday's shooting. 

He's at the Charles Egeler Reception & Guidance Center in Jackson, records show. 

The decision on which county or counties will charge Rosebush will be made in the days to come, Kaiser said.