Family of man charged with murder of DPD Sgt Steil says he is mentally ill

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Marquize Cromer, left. Fallen DPD Sgt. Kenneth Steil

The trial is underway for a man accused of fatally shooting a Detroit police sergeant responding to a domestic violence.

Marquize Cromer is accused of shooting and killing Detroit Police Sgt. Kenneth Steil in 2016.

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Police say on Sept. 11, 2016, Sgt. Steil encountered Cromer as he came around the corner of a building on Hayes Street. Cromer allegedly fired his gun hitting Steil in the shoulder
  
In court the prosecution called on his family to give the jury some insight into Cromer's frame of mind. 

"He went to saying things like God wanted him to kill people and little stuff like that," said Tammy Johnson, Cromer's step mother. "I interrupted and was like no, this is not what God wants you to do."

"He was like how are you going to tell me that God doesn't want me to do this? I know what he wants me to do. He was also saying people are after me and that people are telling on me to the FBI."

His own father says Cromer showed signs of mental illness even at a young age. 

"Yes he was going to see a psychiatrist but he was not taking his medication like he was supposed to," said Sterling Cromer.

"I knew he was going to doctor's appointments because he was diagnosed with lead poisoning when he was young," Johnson said.
 
His parents say those swings in behavior between good and bad continued his whole life. 

According to his family, it ultimately came to head that day in September when he shot his father in the foot at the dinner table and then shot Steil - an injury that would ultimately take that officer's life.