Some answers, more questions, on East Lansing April police shooting discussed at meeting

EAST LANSING — Kimberly Henderson has been an East Lansing resident for nearly 40 years and has never had an issue with trusting police. Until officers shot a 20-year-old in April.

She said she knows there are racial inequities all over the United States, but in her own community?

“It really breaks my heart here,” she said.

Henderson and others spoke during public comment at the East Lansing Independent Police Oversight Commission meeting Monday night discussing the April 25 shooting by police of a Black man in the Lake Lansing Meijer parking lot.

There was also lengthy discussion by commissioners, who had a long list of questions for state and city police and city officials.

Multiple resolutions were passed, including asking for more raw video footage of the shooting to be released and asking for the city manager to research how such shootings are investigated in Michigan.

They also asked why the involved officers haven’t written reports, to which East Lansing Attorney Anthony Chubb was able to provide some answers.

Police have Garrity Rights, which apply to the right of a public employee not to be compelled to incriminate themselves by their employer based on the 1967 United States Supreme Court decision Garrity v. New Jersey.

He said there is an ongoing Michigan State Police investigation and the reports would “really run afoul of that right."

He said reports are potentially being prepared by state police and the reason reports weren’t written by the East Lansing officers is “just a matter of timing.”

Commission Chair Erick Williams said it seems like there should be a heightened reason to write the reports with an incident this serious and it seems paradoxical they haven’t had to.

Commissioner Sharon Hobbs said if she was an officer and she didn’t have to write a report immediately, when she did, they couldn’t get her “on a hangnail.”

“I can’t believe that the officers, when they do write this report, have not been helped to write this report by their attorney and anybody else who would make it less incriminating,” she said.

She asked what the value is of a report being written “whenever” and some accuracy “may go out the tubes.”

“As a citizen of East Lansing, that does not make me feel good,” she said.

Chubb said the officers are “bound by their badge” and believes the officers will be truthful and the report will solely state what they saw.

All the information will come out of the MSP investigation, he said.

There was some discussion of budget concerns, how much it would cost to hire a private investigator for the incident and the number of staff hours for going through the video footage.

Henderson, who works for the Michigan Department of Transportation in the communications department, said she’s shocked about the hesitancy to release the footage.

The community doesn’t want people of color to think East Lansing is an unsafe place to live and more footage will help people understand the behaviors and what happened.

“Whatever happened here has got to be resolved,” she said.

Contact Bryce Airgood at 517-267-0448 or bairgood@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @bairgood123.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: East Lansing Meijer police shooting discussed more at Monday meeting