By Kim Crawford
The Flint Journal
Copyright 2007 The Flint Journal
OAKLAND COUNTY, Mich. — A Genesee County Sheriff’s Department paramedic ordered an armed robbery suspect to drop his gun, shot him several times when he refused - and then proceeded to save the suspect’s life.
The suspect, a Flint man about 28 years old, is in critical condition today at Genesys Regional Medical Center after undergoing surgery.
“Our deputy did what he was trained to do: protect the public and save lives,” Sheriff Robert J. Pickell said about the wounding early Monday of the man suspected of robbing a store-gas station in Grand Blanc Township.
The suspect then led police on a chase that came to a violent end in a subdivision near Clarkston in Oakland County.
“I’m proud of him,” Pickell said of the paramedic.
The paramedic, a military reservist who has served with U.S. armed forces in Iraq, was one of several local law enforcement officers from Genesee County, including Grand Blanc Township and state police officers, who pursued the suspect down I-75 to Independence Township before state troopers knocked his sport-utility vehicle onto its side.
Pickell said he wouldn’t identify the deputy by name, but noted that he’s a paramedic and expert marksman who has served as a sniper in the military.
“He shot the guy and then had the presence of mind to go get his bag and save the guy’s life,” Pickell said.
State police and Pickell on Monday did not release the name of the suspect, but they said the man has an extensive criminal record.
The case began during a wild night in Grand Blanc Township that started about 1 a.m. Monday, when a township officer was injured in a hit-and-run accident on I-475 near Hill Road. That patrolman was taken to Genesys for treatment and was later released.
Those suspects ran and were arrested a few hours later in Grand Blanc Township. But when a township command officer was going to Genesys to visit the injured officer just before 3 a.m., he saw a truck fishtailing out of Fleck’s Market on Holly Road near I-75, just as an armed robbery was reported.
Officers followed that vehicle south on the freeway and were attempting to stop it when it pulled into a rest area in Springfield Township. But state police said the suspect accelerated and got back on the freeway.
Police said the man started to leave the expressway at the Dixie Highway exit, but swerved back onto I-75 when he saw police on the road ahead.
He exited at M-15 in Independence Township and turned north when Oakland County sheriff’s deputies came toward him. About a half-mile north of the freeway, the suspect turned into the Cranberry Pointe subdivision.
A state trooper used what is called the “precision immobilization technique,” or PIT maneuver, to strike the back of the suspect’s SUV, knocking it onto its side.
Officers approached and ordered the suspect, whom they could see moving about the truck with a handgun in his hand, to drop his weapon.
A trooper attempted to use a Taser to stun the suspect but missed him.
At that point, the Genesee County paramedic also ordered the suspect, who was trying to get out of the vehicle, to drop the gun. When he didn’t, the paramedic fired several shots, critically wounding him.
Police said money believed to have been taken in the armed robbery was recovered.
The shooting of the suspect is under investigation by state police, while Grand Blanc Township is handling the robbery investigation, police said.
In an odd footnote, Flint police were notified when one of the suspects in the original hit-and-run incident escaped late Monday afternoon from Hurley Medical Center, where he’d been taken for treatment for injuries he suffered in the crash that hurt the Grand Blanc Township officer.
Flint police officers caught that suspect and arrested him within about 30 minutes.