DPD: Murder of officer could have been prevented, suspect should have been off street
DETROIT (FOX 2) - So many questions remain two days after a shooting that left one officer dead - Rasheen McClain- and another - Phillipe Batoum Bisse - wounded.
Detroit Police Chief James Craig said the same suspect is accused of shooting both officers at a house on Wyoming had been there two weeks before, when he shot up the house.
"What didn't happen and why it didn't happen," Craig said. "Here's what we know, the suspect was still out, the suspect went back to that house two weeks later threatening after he'd already been involved in what we believe to be two separate shootings."
The suspect had been at the house before, after looking for a teen ex-girlfriend and opened fire on the home.
FOX 2: "The 28-year old suspect may have been in a relationship with a 16-year-old?"
"Yes, I am saying that," Craig said. "I am saying he had a relationship. On the day of the shooting of the inhabited dwelling, he had approached that house, he was looking for her. The occupant would not allow him entry and because of that, he decides to shoot the house up."
Officer Batoum Bisse who was shot Wednesday in the ankle, had himself responded, when this 28-year-old had gone there starting trouble two weeks earlier.
Two weeks later when Bisse came back with his partner McClain, they would both be shot.
"We could have prevented this situation," Craig said. "If the shooting happened two weeks ago, he was on parole. If we had identified him in a drive-by shooting, we could have revoked his parole then.
"As we begin to peel back that investigation - lackluster. There should have been more follow-up made. I have launched an internal investigation because I felt more should have been done."
Police are looking at the 28-year-old for two more shootings from this week.
The prosecutor's office has a warrant request in which a 31-year-old man was shot and killed and another wounded. It is alleged this same suspect met the two on Knodell Street, shot them, and drove their car over to Harding.
Police are also investigating a shooting from Sunday at Wyoming and Seven Mile. This same suspect could be tied to that. But the big question marks lie with why the suspect wasn't locked up after this same house was shot up two weeks ago.
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"I don't want to speculate but if we had done an appropriate follow-up and taken him into custody," Craig said. "We wouldn't be talking about our hero whose no longer with us."
Officer McClain - the husband and father of two stepchildren, is being remembered not just for his service but for the great guy he was.
The father of another officer killed in the line of duty feeling their pain.
"It's horrible," said Randy Rose, father of slain Wayne State Police Officer Collin Rose. "And everything moves so fast when you are going through that period. It is really hard to grieve and to kind of go through that process."
