Detroit deputy fire chief investigated after suspicious accident

(WJBK) - It looks like the Detroit Fire Department's third in command is being investigated again - this time for a suspicious accident involving his city owned vehicle.

Just after midnight Dec. 13, Deputy Chief Robert Shinske alerted a senior fire chief that he crashed his DFD SUV into his Dearborn home - smashing the brake light, rear bumper and back window.

Felicia Shinske is standing by her man.

"You guys are making something and it is not a story," she said. "I was here."

But normally when a fire vehicle is involved in accident the driver of the damaged car or senior chief is required to notify central dispatch, which contacts fire administration and an official photographer to document the crash.

We're told that didn't happen. The driver is also supposed to call local police department but we're told Shinske did not because he said it happened in his Dearborn driveway. FOX 2 did find some evidence of glass that appeared to come from the SUV.

FOX 2 reached out to Fire Commissioner Eric Jones who says there is an investigation underway. He says that night Shinske was screened for drugs and alcohol and passed.

However, FOX 2 did not get an answer when we asked how much time had passed between the drug and alcohol screening and the accident.

Normally, the department protocol calls for the firefighter to be suspended until the investigation is complete, but that didn't happen either.

"I don't understand why this is a story,"  Felicia Shinske said. "He was shoveling, he was backing out and he hit the corner. Look how long our driveway is. Now they are saying it is a cover-up? Give me a break."

Robert Shinske is under a microscope because last October he was suspended for five days for taking his city owned SUV to a Dearborn bar. 

Surveillance video shows Shinske pulling up and walking into the New Place Lounge on Michigan Avenue. Someone spotted it at 1:30 in in the morning in the bar parking lot, snapped a picture and posted it on social media.

"That's where he was at fault for having the vehicle," Felicia Shinske said. "Not for everything else, not for making him look like he was a bad person out at the bar. He never does that. He is a family man that is constantly home with his wife and his children."

FOX 2 asked for the firefighter union's response but leaders say they have not received the accident report yet so they will not comment. They likely won't get it because right now there still isn't one.