More questions than answers: Meeting about police shooting at East Lansing Meijer draws critics
EAST LANSING — Lansing resident Farhan Sheikh-Omar said he knew the city of East Lansing was hostile to Black people, but he didn’t realize people of color could be unsafe from police while shopping at Meijer.
Sheikh-Omar was one of 15 people who spoke at a special East Lansing Independent Police Oversight Commission meeting Thursday regarding a police shooting in a Meijer parking lot on Monday that left a 20-year-old Lansing man injured.
“I’m so disappointed,” he said as he addressed the commission. “I really am.”
Four of those who spoke were family members of the man who was shot. His aunt, Charity VanAtten, said he is still in the hospital, handcuffed to a bed. He is in stable condition.
“How dare you?” she asked East Lansing Police Chief Kim Johnson during public comment upon hearing he hadn’t seen any of the video footage of the shooting.
East Lansing officers responded to the Lake Lansing Meijer after someone called the police at about 6:30 p.m. Monday and said a man with a gun had just walked into the store.
Officers who responded to the call saw a man who “matched the description” the caller had provided and chased him from the store into the parking lot. The officers encountered the subject and fired at him, Johnson said in a past interview.
The two involved officers had two years and two and a half years of experience, Johnson said. They are on paid administrative leave while the incident is investigated, per department policy.
Michigan State Police are conducting the investigation.
Johnson said he was unable to discuss details of the case because of the ongoing investigation. He also is refusing to release the involved officers’ names until the investigation is completed.
This is the first police shooting in the East Lansing department’s history and “is one of the biggest challenges that we’ve ever faced,” he said.
”This was a critical incident and one that we take very seriously,” Johnson said.
He said he plans to release video footage of the incident soon.
Commissioners questioned how long it was taking to get the video to the public and voted in favor of having the video available for release within seven days from Thursday, although the action was non-binding.
Commissioners also questioned why police reports have not been filed, why the responding officers reacted the way they did and why the officers have not been fired.
“What were their intent?” Commissioner Robin Etchison asked. “On the surface, there were no laws broken.”
Commissioner Kath Edsall said if the officers violated internal policy, many community members would not have a problem with them being fired.
She said this isn’t an individual officer problem, rather it's a systematic problem of policing Black people.
“This is an issue that has to be addressed, not in this single case, but across the district, across the city and across the nation,” she said.
Commissioners weren’t the only ones with questions.
“Do we know at this point in time, were the police ever threatened?” asked Lorenzo Lopez, a member of Advocates and Leaders for Police and Community Trust. “That’s a question we have to have answered.”
“Why’d they shoot him? Why, when he was running away from them?” Sheikh-Omar asked.
He said the oversight commission was created to hold the department accountable and told Johnson the chief’s job isn’t to protect the officers, but to serve and protect the community.
“Shame on you,” he said.
Michael Lynn also addressed Johnson, saying he knows the position the chief is in “sucks” but he also has a choice to make and should hold the officers accountable.
“Do the right thing,” he said.
Reporter Kara Berg contributed to this report.
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 special meeting draws crowd
