Police, mother in armed standoff in Detroit; shot fired

Police, mother in armed standoff in Detroit; shot fired | Detroit Free Press | freep.com


No one was injured, but the incident that began this evening prompted a standoff that lasted into the night.

As of midnight, police were continuing to negotiate with the woman, who had barricaded herself and her child in the home on Blaine near Linwood on the city’s west side, in an attempt to end the situation.

She had not backed down, but had asked police for a pizza for her daughter.

Earlier, the woman offered to give herself up to a local minister. She asked for Minister Malik Shabazz, who spoke with the woman on the phone and said she told him the state was trying to take her child, who has a mental illness, for medical treatment.

The mother, Shabazz said, favors holistic methods.

“She’s a mother protecting her child,” said Shabazz, who is a co-founder of Detroit 300, a citizen group. “She did tell me that she’ll give herself up to me.”

Detroit Police spokeswoman Sgt. Eren Stephens said Child Protective Services arrived at the home at about 5:35 p.m.

Lt. Michael Nied, of the 10th Precinct, said he and two officers, helping execute the order to take the child, kicked in the side door of the home on Blaine and entered a landing area.

They were about to kick in another door leading into the house, when a shot rang out, blasting through the wall, Nied said.

Along Linwood, which was blocked off between Blaine and Gladstone, onlookers stood for hours. Some prayed.

Patrisha Navarro, who said she lives on Blaine, and Shantique Johnson, who lives on a nearby street, said they heard the gunshot ring out after protective services and police arrived at the home.

“She shot at the police,” Johnson said.

Hours after members of the Detroit Police Department’s Special Response Team arrived, joining crisis negotiators and a barrage of police, Nied was still on the scene, drywall plaster dusted on his left shoulder.

Contact GINA DAMRON: gdamron@freepress.com.