3 recent cases of Detroit police officers targeted by violence troubles chief

DETROIT (WJBK) - There have been three incidents in the last few days where Detroit police officers were either shot at or were the target of a gunman.

Thankfully none of the officers involved were injured.

"In one of the three incidents this weekend the suspect fired a number of rounds from a .45 caliber semiautomatic weapon," Chief James Craig said. "In the two other incidents both of the suspects were armed with weapons, removing the weapons as they were having contact with the officers.

"It's disturbing, it's troubling."

Also troubling is how social media may play a role in violence against police officers, Craig said.

"This represents a minority because the majority of Detroiters denounce this kind of violence," he said. "But there are those in social media encouraging others to arm up and direct violence at our officers. It doesn't matter what the facts are, doesn't matter that officers have been shot at, but they want to direct violence and encourage others to do it."

Craig also pointed to a situation last week where a woman used a Taser against a DPD officer during an arrest of her brother.

"Here we have a young woman approach an officer in uniform and tase him," Craig said. "And we got her aunt as it turns out, bringing out false statements talking about the reason the daughter did this is, she was protecting her brother who was being choked and beaten by Detroit police officers - absolutely false.

"We release our body camera video and it refutes that."

And threats against police officers on social media are being watched closely.

"Every time there is a specific threat against a police officer, we go out and we arrest," Craig said. "We take threats very seriously, we respond to them and when it happens we are going to act on it."