Detroit police chief fires back at critics on Facebook as mayor says TV show led to his ouster

Ousted Detroit police chief fires back on Facebook

DETROIT — Ousted Detroit Police Chief Warren Evans lashed out at critics on his Facebook page on Thursday as the city’s mayor said he fired the chief a day earlier because of his role in a reality TV show and relationship with a fellow officer.

In a comment posted on his Facebook page, Evans, 61, said he didn’t understand the problem with a video promoting a reality show in which he would star.

“I don’t get the big fuss! It’s a producers product,” he said in the post. “If the City doesn’t like it there won’t be a series Period! Does someone want to believe the streets aren’t like that? LOL”

Mayor Dave Bing acknowledged for the first time Thursday that the video was a factor in his decision to fire Evans. The promotional video includes footage of Evans posing with an assault rifle outside a vacant city train station, patrolling and making arrests.

Bing had banned reality TV cameras from following officers after a 7-year-old girl was killed during a police raid in May, though the promotional video appears to have been shot over the winter.

In the botched May raid, a special response team was searching for a man wanted in an earlier killing. It was documented by a camera crew for A&E’s reality television show “The First 48.” Bing didn’t know Evans had approved a contract with the show, which had followed Detroit police and homicide investigators for several months.

Bing, who had declined to elaborate on his reasons for firing the chief on Wednesday, said Thursday that he decided to fire Evans because the chief had “blind-sided” him about a number of things, including the A&E TV show, the promotional spot for the proposed reality show to be called “The Chief,” and Evans’ romantic relationship with police Lt. Monique Patterson.

“We know the tease, the A&E, there were personnel issues, all of that,” Bing said. “It wasn’t easy. It was my choice. I don’t just get rid of people.”

Evans’ relationship with Patterson was common knowledge — his Facebook profile picture shows him with the lieutenant — and there is no internal police policy prohibiting such relationships.

“It’s a shame when its problematic for two single adults to date,” Evans said on his Facebook page. “Shame on me for not hiding it! Or being married with a girlfriend on the job like so many others.”

Evans did not immediately respond on Thursday to a request by The Associated Press seeking comment.