> Family, co-workers mourn slain West Bloomfield officer: 'We'll take

> all the prayers we can get'

> 2:27 PM, September 10, 2012

> A West Bloomfield Township man still barricaded in a house after a

> fatally killing a police officer faced a divorce and financial woes,

> court records show.

> Officer Patrick O’Rourke, 39, a 12-year veteran and married father of

> four children, was shot Sunday night as he stood outside a bedroom at

> the home in the 4000 block of Forest Edge, off Pontiac Trail east of

> Halsted.

> The gunman, identified by authorities as Rick Coley, was still in the

> home this afternoon as police work to get him out. Pontiac Trail near

> Halsted remains closed to families evacuated at about 2 a.m.

> Coley, 50, an out-of-work engineer and businessman, had recently seen

> problems piling up: A divorce, which required him to leave the home by

> today and a federal lawsuit and other troubles over two companies he

> was involved with, according to court records and others.

> West Bloomfield Police Lt. Timothy Diamond said that the sheriff's

> office used robots to try to see inside the house in an effort to end

> the stand-off. He said Coley may have fired shots at the robot early

> today.

> O'Rourke, of Fenton was standing outside a bedroom last night when

> shots blasted through the door and wall, Diamond said.

> "It's a terrible day," said Diamond.

> Family members called police at about 10 p.m. Sunday when Coley fired

> a single shot in his bedroom, despondent over a pending divorce,

> Diamond said.

> Diamond said Coley was set to move out of his house when things went

> wrong on Sunday.

> "His family had apparently come from North Carolina to help him move

> back to North Carolina," Diamond said. "And then he decided he wasn’t

> going to go."

> "Typically, if you only hear one shot, generally somebody has

> committed suicide," Diamond said. "They thought they were going in to

> render aid."

> The four other officers with O'Rourke were able to get him out of the

> house and to McLaren Hospital in Pontiac, where he was declared dead.

> The well-liked officer started at the West Bloomfield Police

> Department as a cadet in 1997 and became a police officer in 2000

> after attending Wayne County Regional Police Academy at Schoolcraft

> College, Sgt. Tara Kane said today.

> "They're just extremely wonderful, nice people," she said about

> O'Rourke and his wife, Amy O'Rourke, 37. The couple has three

> daughters: Eileen, 10; Mary, 8, and Andrea, 5. Their son, Stephen, is

> 9 months old. "He's probably the most-liked person in this building."

> The couple became sweethearts at Hartland High School after meeting

> while working together at McDonald's. Patrick O'Rourke graduated from

> Hartland in 1991; Amy O'Rourke graduated in 1993.

> O'Rourke's father-in-law, Steve Corry, 59, of Linden, the family is

> relying on their faith and is surrounded by their church family from

> St. John Catholic Church in Fenton.

> "We’ll take all the prayers we can get," Corry said. "Patrick was a

> very strong Catholic and very much appreciated by his church and

> church family, so any prayers would be great."

> Amy O'Rourke would like those who knew or interacted with her husband

> to post thoughts on Facebook, her father said.

> Information about an education fund being created by the police

> department for the couple's four children will also be posted there

> when it is available, Corry said.

> "Post favorite memories on Facebook," he said. "She wants memories for

> the girls."

> Najab Ayar, who lives next door to Coley on the quiet street,

> describes Coley as a "family man," who was having family issues and

> possibly financial problems.

> "I would not believe he would do such a thing, I would not even dream

> it," Ayar said. "I saw (his wife) on the street last night and said,

> "Have you talked to him?' She just said no. She said, 'Too many

> problems.' That's all she said."

> He said Coley has an engineering degree and owns a local trucking

> company.

> "Hopefully some sense will come to his mind and he will think about

> his son, and come out and get it over with peacefully," Ayar said.

> "That is what we're praying for."

> Online court records indicate Coley’s wife, Deniece Coley, sued for

> divorce in Oakland County in June. The records list a case disposition

> date of Aug. 30, with a judgment being prepared.

> According to court documents, Deniece Coley moved out of the family’s

> home on June 12.

> The couple, who were married in Pontiac in November 1998, have a 7-

> year-old son.

> Deniece Coley claims her husband physically attacked her on June 12

> and that he had threatened to take their son. She claims that he’s

> been unfaithful and is under psychological counseling.

> She also said in the complaint that he has not worked for the past

> three years “though physically and otherwise qualified to work,”

> noting that Coley has a bachelor’s degree in engineering and an MBA.

> Coley was sued by Hilda Solis, U.S. Secretary of Labor, in federal

> court in Bay City in August, accused of transferring $341,946 from a

> company that CNC Holdings had acquired a controlling interest in in

> 2008 to himself or his affiliates.

> Coley’s LinkedIn page lists him as chairman emeritus and the former

> private equity executive director for CNC Holdings.

> Federal court documents show that the other company, Translogic Auto

> Carriers, which ceased operations in 2010, had been withholding money

> from its employees’ paychecks during this period but failed to send

> the money to an employee dental, vision and life insurance plan, which

> was ultimately canceled.

> More than $17,313 in employee claims were denied.

> According to what appears to be his Facebook page, Coley was born in

> Goldsboro, N.C., studied industrial and systems engineering at Georgia

> Tech, received an MBA at Queens University of Charlotte and attended

> the North Carolina Central University School of Law in Durham.

> Coley’s LinkedIn page says he had worked for Ford until January 2008

> as North American plants operations manager/director, had worked for

> UPS and General Motors.

> The page also says he was a 2nd lieutenant in the Army’s Infantry

> Reserve, serving in Charlotte, and a specialist 4th class/corporal-

> nuclear artillery in Augsburg, formerly West Germany.

> Neighbor Renee Poota, 33, who lives across the street, watched in

> horror Sunday night as O'Rourke was shot.

> "It was very scary," she said. "I just saw the police break into the

> house, and there was shooting. And I guess it was the police (officer)

> that just passed away, they were carrying him out and there was an

> ambulance. It started around 10 o'clock last night and the shooting

> was around 11:15."

> Poota said she doesn't know Coley.

> Police called Poota's home at about 4:30 a.m. today, telling her that

> she, her husband and their four children ages 6 to 13, needed to

> leave.

> "They said you have to leave and your house is the most dangerous

> house because it’s across the street," she said from a relative's home

> this morning.

> Diamond said counselors have been working overnight with the West

> Bloomfield Township police officers, fire department personnel and

> dispatchers involved in the situation.

> "The officers who responded are pretty shaken up, so they haven't been

> interviewed intensely, and they probably won't be for a couple of

> days," Diamond said.

> At Pleasant Lake Elementary School on Halsted Road about a half-mile

> from the shooting scene, school remained in session even as Wayne

> County Sheriff's Office cars guarded the school entrance. One school

> mother said she worried about her child being in school and whether

> the gunman was contained at the scene.

> But Judy Evola, spokeswoman for Walled Lake Consolidated Schools, said

> the district had been in constant contact with authorities about the

> standoff and "there is no danger" to the children. "In fact school is

> probably the safest place for them," she said.

> West Bloomfield Township Police Chief Michael Patton is expected to

> make a statement later today, Diamond said.

> Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon today expressed his condolences

> and offers sympathy and prayers to the family of the fallen officer,

> his colleagues and friends.

> “To learn that a veteran officer has been lost saddens us all to the

> core because we know he selflessly made the greatest sacrifice,"

> Napoleon said in a statement.

> "My prayers go out to his loved ones and friends.”

> Elton Black & Son in Highland is handling the pending funeral