DEARBORN HEIGHTS, Mich. (WXYZ) — “I got a good look at him. He's very distinctive, all super blue eyes,” said Ofc. Emily Murdoch with Dearborn Heights Police Department.
Officer Murdoch is talking about Andrew Hall, the suspect identified following an assault in the parking lot of a Target store in Troy and a murder in Detroit.
She first got a look at him after seeing a post by the victim police say he assaulted in the Target parking lot in Troy.
“She mentions how she has a one-year-old son. She's engaged to be married... And I become very sad because I have a one-year-old son. I'm engaged and I just know that feeling of I just want to get home to my baby at the end of the night,” said Ofc. Murdoch.
After Friday’s assault and the Tuesday morning murder of Lisa Moffett-Weins in Detroit, both Detroit and Troy police released images of the suspect.
Tuesday afternoon, Officer Murdoch was dispatched to a parking complaint.
“It’s busy, rush hour. And so we're going slow. I'm looking around and Andrew Hall is walking southbound and he looks over his shoulder at me. I make eye contact with him. A pretty long eye contact like we both like go like, wait, what? You know, like he recognizes me as a police officer. I'm like, in my head, where do I know him from? And I immediately am like, 'oh, my god,' that's the guy who murdered someone in Detroit in the trees… the Troy victim's attacker,” Ofc. Murdoch said.
She drove off, takes a side street and calls Dearborn police and Detroit homicide and immediately begins analyzing the situation.
“I begin thinking to myself if I was a criminal, what would I do right? If a police officer spotted me, what how would I try to hide? So I go back to Telegraph and I'm not able to see him. But a perimeter is set with undercover officers shortly after,” Ofc. Murdoch said.
The suspect, evading until police closed in, was arrested as a result of Officer Murdoch’s actions.
“Just very grateful they were able to get someone so dangerous off the streets. It sounds like he was attacking females. I was in the right place at the right time. The fact that a female officer was able to locate him, essentially leading to his arrest to protect other females... It's a good feeling,” Ofc. Murdoch said.
