Two Detroit police officers were injured on Monday after exchanging fire with an off-duty Detroit police officer “struggling with a mental crisis” who went rogue.
During a news conference Monday evening, Detroit Police Chief James White confirmed that one of the department’s active police officers made a 911 call while off-duty and subsequently opened fire on several of his colleagues who responded.
“He is asking for suicide by cop. He is struggling with a mental crisis,” White said as he recounted the scene.
After the unnamed off-duty officer wounded one colleague in the leg and another in the thigh, one of the responding police officers returned fatal gunfire.
“It’s a horrible day,” White said as he reflected on the suicidal law enforcement member’s death.
“We’re not immune to mental crisis. We’re just like everyone else — it affects everybody, including law enforcement,” he added before calling the responding officers “heroes.”
“Once they recognized it was one of our own members, they still had to do their job and make sure that everyone else was safe,” he said.
The off-duty officer who died had spent 13 years with the Detroit Police Department and had served on the department’s Special Response Team. He remains unidentified. White told reporters he would not be releasing further information and details as of Monday evening.
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Since being named to head the DPD in 2021, White has made mental health in law enforcement a key issue of focus during his tenure. He brought up the topic during an event at the White House in 2022 and announced in September he was seeking to address the “mental health crisis” by applying for a job as CEO at the Detroit Wayne Integrated Health Network.
“I can confirm that I’ve applied for this position,” White told ClickonDetroit. “It’s an extremely important role at a critical time for Detroit and Wayne County. We continue to have a mental health crisis in our community that needs to be addressed at multiple levels.”