East Lansing official calls Nessel decision to charge man shot by police 'malicious'

At least one member of East Lansing's Independent Police Oversight Commission is unhappy with state Attorney General Dana Nessel's decision to bring criminal charges against a man who was shot by police outside a store in April.

In a letter dated Thursday, Erick Williams, an administrative law judge who chairs the police oversight board, urged Nessel to drop the charges against DeAnthony VanAtten.

"I accept that you have declined to prosecute a pair of overzealous cops; it's a legitimate exercise of your discretion," Williams said in the letter, which referenced the oversight commission, but was signed only by him. "But bringing criminal charges against the relatively innocent victim of a police shooting seems unnecessary — indeed malicious — and handicaps work in other branches of government."

Nessel on Wednesday announced during a press conference in Detroit that her Public Integrity Unit had cleared the two East Lansing officers who fired a total of eight rounds in the parking lot of the Meijer store on Lake Lansing Road, saying VanAtten, 20, presented an "extreme" threat while fleeing from officers. The officers were responding to a report of a man with a gun, and VanAtten was seen with a firearm in the parking lot before the officers fired on him, the attorney general said.

"They took the measures that were necessary to eliminate an immediate and extreme threat," Nessel said. "In doing so, they protected their own lives and the safety of the members of the public who were present at the location."

Williams drew a different conclusion.

"The officers did not observe criminal activity," he said in the letter. "They encountered a shopper after he had paid for his groceries. They chased him. He ran away. They shot him in the parking lot while he was running away. He could have been killed."

Authorities then "branded" VanAtten as a criminal, even though his alleged crimes were not discovered until after he was shot, Williams wrote.

"Branding the victim of police misconduct as a criminal is a frequent tactic," he wrote.

Nessel's office responded to Williams' letter with this statement:

"As Attorney General Nessel previously stated, the decision in this case was strictly based on the evidence and the law that applies to that evidence. The Attorney General understands there are those who may disagree with the decision to charge certain individuals and not others, but she has a duty to evaluate the evidence and pursue appropriate charges."

VanAtten has been arraigned on seven felony counts, including four charges of assaulting or obstructing police and one count each of carrying a concealed weapon, receiving and concealing a stolen firearm and felony firearm possession. He also faces one count of third-degree retail fraud, a misdemeanor. Authorities apparently believe he did not pay for all of the items he carried out of the store.

The city's Independent Police Oversight Commission is an advisory panel with no decision-making authority. In the weeks following the April 25 shooting, it repeatedly called for police to release more evidence, including video footage.

The city publicly released numerous video clips extracted from store surveillance cameras and police body and dash cameras.

The Capitol City Labor Program, the bargaining agent for Lansing-area police officers, took a shot at the commission after Nessel announced her findings on Wednesday. The union called her decision "a resounding rebuke of the rush to judgement by many — particularly the East Lansing Independent Police Oversight Commission."

"The decision of the Attorney General to charge the suspect with multiple firearm-related felonies, while simultaneously clearing the officers of any wrongdoing, should lead members of the East Lansing community to question both the objective judgment and purpose of the (commission)," the statement said.

Williams also criticized Nessel for refusing to release additional "materials or evidence" related to the investigations on grounds that the cases remain open.

"Our commission, which investigates non-criminal police malpractice, has been waiting to see the evidence that the state has been gathering," he wrote. "Your decision makes it all but impossible for us to see that evidence and may deprive the local police administration of evidence it needs to discipline its own employees."

East Lansing police have begun an internal investigation, officials said after Nessel's decision.

Contact Ken Palmer at kpalmer@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @KBPalm_lsj.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: East Lansing official calls decision to charge man shot by police 'malicious'