Man shot by East Lansing police in Meijer parking lot faces multiple felony charges

A man who was shot by police in the parking lot of an East Lansing Meijer store in April was charged in connection with the incident Tuesday, one day before the state Attorney General’s Office was set to release its findings in an East Lansing police use-of-force investigation.

DeAnthony VanAtten, 20, was charged Tuesday with seven felony counts and one misdemeanor count, records in 54B District Court indicate.

The felony charges include four counts 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, the records indicate.

The charges were entered into online court records on Tuesday, but the offense date was listed as April 25, 2022, the day VanAtten was shot outside the Meijer store on Lake Lansing Road. The records indicate VanAtten was taken into custody after the warrant was signed but had not been arraigned on the charges.

No attorney for VanAtten was listed in court records.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel's office late Tuesday afternoon announced a Wednesday morning press conference in Detroit to discuss the findings of her department’s Public Integrity Unit investigation into a use-of-force incident by East Lansing police.

The shooting happened after officers responded to a report of a man with a gun at the Meijer store on Lake Lansing Road. A caller said she saw a man get out of a vehicle, run toward a store entrance, then return to the car to get a gun before running back to the store, according to information released by East Lansing police.

Officers chased the man inside the store, then pursued him into the parking lot, where two of them fired a total of eight shots after an officer said the man had a gun.

VanAtten was shot once in the abdomen and once in the leg. Officers rendered first aid, and VanAtten was treated at Sparrow Hospital and later transferred to the Ingham County Jail on a probation violation warrant, according to Michigan State Police, who investigated the incident.

Officers eventually found a loaded handgun on the pavement beneath a parked car, near where VanAtten was seen crouching briefly while police were chasing him, according to video evidence released by police.

Officers Jose Viera and Jim Menser fired their weapons and were placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.

In the wake of the shooting, East Lansing police released numerous video clips taken from police dashboard and body cameras and indoor and outdoor store security cameras. Faces, license plates and other identifying information was blurred to conceal identities.

In the days following the incident, VanAtten's mother and members of Black Lives Matter Lansing were critical of the officers' actions.

Burnette VanAtten said the only thing her son was guilty of is “shopping while Black.”

"He was running in fear for his life," she said in early May.

"It makes us feel, again, unsafe," Sean Holland, co-leader of the BLM chapter, said. "To look at that scene and to see as if it was a battle scene (for the police) to protect themselves … and to fire at this young man who was running away. I have no words."

Nessel's office said it would also on Tuesday at the in-person only Detroit press conference announce the findings of a use of force incident by police in northern Michigan's Ogemaw County.

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

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Man shot by police at East Lansing Meijer store faces seven felony charges