DETROIT (WXYZ) — Detroit Police James Craig provided an update and released body-cam footage of an officer-involved shooting which left a man dead on Friday afternoon.
Chief Craig joined 7 Action News This Morning on Saturday to discuss details about the video. Watch below:
Craig released the following details about the shooting:
Police arrived at 12:35 p.m. to make an arrest on a man named Mr. Sylvester on an active federal DEA warrant for the shooting earlier this month. Mr. Sylvester was being arrested without incident.
During the arrest, Hakim Littleton, who was the man who was shot and killed, was present during the arrest.
While officers were arresting Sylvester, Hakim said, something to the effect of you're not going to take my man, in other words, the interpretation is, you're not going to arrest him.
Littleton then drew a handgun from his left pocket, pointed it at officers, and fired a shot at one of the police officers at close range, narrowly missing him. Chief Craig said it was between 2-3 feet from the officer.
Three officers returned fire, and Littleton continued firing his weapon even as he was on the ground.
Officers fired 4 shots in total, 2 from one officer, one each from the other two officers.
Littleton also fired four shots from his .25 caliber blue steel semi-automatic Beretta.
The news conference was called after protests broke out at the scene of the officer-involved shooting.
While the protest began peacefully, some agitators then threw bottles at bricks at the officers.
Chief Craig told 7 Action News that the protesters were responding to internet rumors about the shooting that indicated it was an ambush.
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan released the following statement:
The City of Detroit was one of the first in America to outfit its police cars and officers with cameras for this type of incident. Public confidence requires citizens to be able to judge for themselves the actions of our officers. The video is clear that the officer was suddenly and unexpectedly fired upon. I commend Chief Craig for moving so quickly to release the video publicly.
