Bishop, police commissioner says Detroit officer pulls gun during traffic stop

A Detroit bishop and police commissioner says when he was ticketed for running a red a light, a Detroit Police Officer pulled a gun on him and put his finger to the trigger.

Bishop Edgar Vann of the Second Ebenezer Church was being cited by a Detroit police officer for allegedly running a red light, having tinted windows and not having insurance. During last week's traffic stop, he said things quickly and wrongfully escalated.

"He pulled his gun out of his holster put his finger in the trigger, and put the gun on his chest," Vann said.

He told FOX 2's Hannah Saunders there was no reason for the officer to take it this far.

"[It's] a little frightening. I've never felt frightened, I'm a supporter of the police," he said.

The June 15th traffic stop took place outside the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center in downtownDetroit. Bishop Vann, who is also a police commissioner, decided to put it on the record Thursday at a commission board meeting. 

After learning of the incident, Detroit Police Chief James Craig said the actions that Vann said the officer took are not what they train their officers to do.

"It's premature to render a judgment on the stop. it is factual that officer, depending on the stop - where it's a high risk - they may remove their weapon. we don't train, as described in the news article, to place the weapon on the chest. that seems odd," Craig said.

Chief Craig is still in the process of getting the officer's side of what happened. He said for some reason the dash cam wasn't rolling at the time of the incident, but detectives will be gathering video from nearby buildings.

"If the car had a dash cam that wasn't operating, what is management doing to ensure, are we routinely checking these cars?" Craig said.

Vann said the lack of police video isn't new in these kinds of situations.

"That's been a recurring problem that we've delt with at the board of polcie commissioners. For some reason, when these kinds of things happen, for some reason or another, we can't find the video,"

Detroit police are launching a full investigation.