Suspect Shot In 'Fierce Gun Battle' With Detroit Police

DETROIT (WWJ) Detroit police busted through the door of a home in a neighborhood where officers had come under fire, and shot a suspect.

The 45-year-old man who was shot is in critical condition and undergoing surgery, according to the latest reports.

And now cops are looking for a second suspect.

Police said the incident started when police went to check on a suspicious vehicle parked with the engine running on Hull Street and East State Fair Avenue at about 1 a.m. According to WDIV, police said the person inside the vehicle ran away from officers and someone on a porch nearby began shooting at officers.

Chief James Craig says the encounter was totally unprovoked.

"The officers and this suspect were in a gun battle — a fierce gun battle — and the thing that might've saved our officers is the fact that the suspect's gun jammed," Craig said. "He got five shots off and he couldn't get any more off."

One officer suffered a leg injury during the pursuit, but no officers were shot.

Charlie Langton, reporting live from the scene for WWJ 950, said evidence markers are all over the street.

Ronald Jones-Bay, who lives across the street, heard the gunfire. He told Langton he knows the gunman and called him, generally, "a good guy."

"You know sometimes, you know, you live that life and...that's the way things happen," Jones-Bay said. "You know, people wanna change out here but sometimes they can't; you know what I'm saying? He wanted to change but sometimes situations, emotional situations happen."

The suspect's name has not been released, but Chief Craig described him as a parolee and a "career criminal."

This follows an incident from 10:30 a.m. Wednesday where officers on routine patrol in the city's 12th Precinct were targeted by a man with an assault rifle.

"As they approached the intersection they heard several shots fired," Detroit Police Chief James Craig said. "As they continued to advance in an eastbound direction, they looked and saw a suspect with that appeared to be an assault-type rifle, a magazine — a large capacity magazine — and began firing shots at the officer."

No one was injured.

Craig said they were looking for the shooter along with two accomplices.

As for a motive, Craig said gang violence may have been involved,  that the cops were targeted.

"They were in a marked patrol car, in full uniform," he said. "So it's no accident; they knew that these were Detroit police officers…This was an ambush."