Detroit police: Officer wounded 2 innocent victims responding to June block party shooting

DETROIT (FOX 2) - A Detroit police officer is under investigation for shooting two innocent people at an illegal block party last June, the interim chief said on Wednesday.

The two people recovered from the incident where four were wounded - one fatally - at the party which took place on Trinity near Florence on June 1. The third person wounded was armed, who has recovered and is still under investigation, but not charged.

On Monday the department received information on the ballistic evidence taken  from one of the wounded victims that concluded the bullet was fired by police.

Interim DPD Chief Todd Bettison said the female officer in question is on desk duty and a warrent request has been submitted to the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office.  There have been no arrests in the case.

A second armed person had an AR-style rifle that appeared to be an AK-47 and fled the scene, described as chaotic. Last July, DPD released bodycam from the responding officers which chronicled the incident.

"The officer feared for her life, there were a lot of folks there, a lot of gunfire," Bettison said. "It was a less than desirable situation."

The officer is an eight-year veteran of the department and is on administrative duty pending the outcome of the case. She has no previous incidents of force in her record, Bettison said. 

All told, eight firearms and 93 casings were recovered from the shooting scene - which was just one of a series of illegal block parties that took place last summer.  

Shooting victim Imani Peterson, a 19-year-old mother, later died from her injuries two weeks later. Peterson was an innocent victim in the shooting, and left behind a 4-month-old son.

"The person wounded intentionally who had a gun is still under investigation. There were a lot of people firing weapons."

The two innocent party-goers who were wounded and have recovered,were described as two women, one 23 years old and 20 years old.

"My heart goes out to them, whether they were shot intentionally or unintentionally, it's not a good day when you have to use force. You are there to serve and protect," Bettison said. "I can't even imagine how the officer is feeling." 

Gunshot victim Imani Peterson

The illegal block party trend - and violence that followed - was addressed by a DPD crackdown featuring new patrols.

In early July, two people were killed and 19 injured at an illegal block party on Rossini Street.

Bettison credited the work of the unit for the reduction of similiar incidents that followed afterward. 

"One thing that would alleviate things in situations like this, the large block parties - we know we had the Rossini incident," he said. "After that we established our illegal street party detail. By getting there early and breaking it up early, we believe that will eliminate (violent incidents). We saw a tremendous drop in that."