Wounded Suspect Fled in Cruiser as Detroit Officer Lay Dying
Ken [NY
Detroit, MI - 2/16/2002
BY JACK KRESNAK
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Moments after the gunshot, the skinny, blond-haired man stumbled out
of the backyard, holding his stomach with one hand and a police pistol
with the other. He was hurt and cursing.
"That (expletive) cop shot me," he said as he walked to the patrol
car. He slid into the running car and drove off.
The officer was on the ground in the backyard in Redford, holding his
arm and bleeding heavily from his neck.
"I'm shot," he said. "Help me."
That was the grim, chaotic scene witnesses described to police
investigating the Tuesday night slaying of Detroit Police Officer
Michael Scanlon, according to a police report released Friday.
Scanlon had been shot, but only in the left forearm. It was the 10
stab wounds in his neck that killed the 10-year police veteran and
father of two young children before he reached Botsford General
Hospital in Farmington Hills.
The report was filed in district court after the suspect -- Brian J.
Bourne, 22, of Redford Township -- was arraigned in his bed at
University of Michigan Hospitals in Ann Arbor.
Judge Karen Khalil of Redford's 17th District Court ordered Bourne
held without bond on two counts of first-degree murder -- premeditated
and intentional killing of a peace officer in the performance of
duties. Bourne said little during the hearing, although he asked for a
court-appointed lawyer, authorities said.
Each charge carries a penalty of life in prison without parole. Wayne
County Prosecutor Michael Duggan and several police officials vowed to
do everything they could to prove Bourne's guilt in court and see that
he never again has a day of freedom.
The death of Scanlon, a popular and hardworking traffic officer in the
8th (Grand River) Precinct, has hit his colleagues hard, according to
the police officials gathered for a news conference Friday morning.
The precinct commander, Bryan Turnbull, said many officers are getting
counseling.
"The community has been ripped apart, the Police Department and
obviously the family," Turnbull said.
Turnbull said discussion about whether Detroit officers should work in
two-person cars was too soon and inappropriate. "Even when you do
everything right, bad things can happen," he said.
Bourne was transferred to Detroit Receiving Hospital later Friday and
was held there under police guard.
Asked about Bourne's prognosis, Cmdr. Dennis Richardson said: "Life in
prison, I hope."
About 2 1/2 hours before the fatal stabbing, Bourne had left his job
at Christy Services, a Marathon gas station at Telegraph and 7 Mile in
Detroit where he'd worked as a mechanic's assistant for six months.
Christy's owner, Christopher Bovee, said Bourne didn't make much
trouble and even had been complimented by customers for being polite.
Bourne, whose juvenile record describes emotional troubles and
lifelong fascination with knives, has a tool box at the station where
he once kept a long hunting knife -- "Something like out of the
'Crocodile Dundee' movie," Bovee said -- until his boss told him to
take it home.
The station's chief mechanic, Chuck England, said Bourne had recently
purchased a switchblade at the Gibraltar Trade Center and then
modified it with a spring loader, so the blade sprang out of the
handle.
Bourne was seen playing with the knife at the station earlier Tuesday
and was told to put it away, police said.
Police suspect the knife, which has a 3 1/2-inch blade and
blue-and-pearl handle, was used to stab Scanlon. Although police found
Scanlon's pistol in the road about two blocks from St. Mary Mercy
Hospital in Livonia, where Bourne drove himself in Scanlon's patrol
car for treatment, the knife has not been located.
Anyone who finds the knife is asked to call Detroit police at
313-596-2260 anytime.
England and Bovee described Bourne as personable. They said about a
half-dozen teenage girls often came to the station looking for him.
Bourne liked Pontiac Firebirds and has registration papers for several
in his toolbox at work.
Police traffic control officers routinely sit in the gas station's
driveway monitoring traffic at the busy intersection, England said.
Bourne would often go out to ask the officers how they were doing and
joke with them for 10 minutes or so, he said.
According to Duggan and police reports, a 16-year-old boy who lives in
the home on West 6 Mile Road where the officer was killed had talked
with Bourne by telephone that night and asked if Bourne would help him
buy cigarettes.
Bourne was on his way to the boy's house when, police say, he
apparently was spotted by Scanlon committing a traffic offense.
After being released from the W.J. Maxey Training School in Whitmore
Lake in June 2000, Bourne racked up an impressive number of driving
infractions and license suspensions. His license is currently
suspended. He also is on probation on a misdemeanor sex charge in
district court in Livonia. So Bourne had reason to think he would get
locked up, officials said.
Bourne drove into the 16-year-old friend's driveway with Scanlon right
behind him with the lights of the patrol car flashing.
Scanlon was frisking Bourne at the car when Bourne broke free and ran
around the garage into a neighbor's backyard, witnesses said. Scanlon
chased him, caught him and was struggling with him when the knife came
out and the suspect began stabbing the officer in the neck, according
to the police reports.
Scanlon got his gun out and fired one shot that went through his own
forearm before going into Bourne's abdomen, police said.
After driving himself to the hospital, Bourne parked the patrol car
and walked into the emergency room with the car keys.
"I'm shot, help me," Bourne told a nurse, according to the police
report. He told another hospital employee that a "crackhead" had shot
him.
After Livonia police arrived and arrested him, the report says, Bourne
repeatedly said: "Let me die. Let me die."
Ken (NY)
--
Chairperson,
Department of Redundancy Department
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