Police officer dies, another person hurt in Detroit suburb shooting

Police officer dies in Detroit suburb shooting

TAYLOR, Mich. — A police officer was killed and another person injured following a shooting in a Detroit suburb early Friday.

Taylor police Lt. John Blair said the officer, described only as a “veteran of the department,” died shortly after 6 a.m.

Blair said both shooting victims had been taken to Oakwood Hospital in Dearborn. Blair did not know the condition of the person injured in the shooting, whom he called the only defendant in the case.

“It’s a rough day. A lot of long faces around here,” Blair said, adding that the fatal shooting is the first in the department’s history. “We’ve escaped it to this point.”

The Michigan State Police and officers from Taylor cordoned off stretches of the Coppertree apartment complex in the southwestern Detroit suburb Friday morning as an investigation into the shooting got under way.

Yellow police tape was affixed to trees throughout the complex and investigators went door-to-door to ask residents what they knew about the incident.

Arthur White, 38, said his 18-year-old son was awakened by what he thought were fireworks, but later learned was gunfire. White said the complex is in a rough area where drugs and teenage delinquency are common.

“A lot of activity here,” he said. “Drugs. Teenagers walking around.”

White said a woman was fatally shot two days after he moved into Coppertree several years ago.

Wendy Meinke was killed in 2007 during a dispute involving her son and others at an apartment complex in Taylor. Police at the time said she tried to intervene and two people shot in her direction.

Associated Press Writers Nicquel Terry and David Aguilar contributed to this report.