Retired Detroit officer arrested after standoff, grenades recovered from home

DETROIT (WJBK) - A retired Detroit officer has been arrested Monday after a standoff with police, who found grenades in the man's home on Detroit's west side.

Police took the suspect into custody just before 5 a.m.

They were first alerted to the scene around 3 a.m., when several people called to report shots fired near Abington and Grand River.

Between 20 to 30 rounds were fired from an assault rifle.

Police had set up a perimeter around the home and were waiting for the department's special response team to arrive, when the retired officer who had been with the DPD for 20 years or so got into his car and tried to get away.

Officials pulled him over not far away and took him into custody. They say he'd been drinking.

"Shooting an automatic weapon in public, numerous rounds," said Commander Elvin Barren of the Detroit Police Department. "So these things are concerning, so I don't know happened over the course of the years that would prompt him to conduct himself in that manner."

Investigators eventually tried to search his home that looked somewhat like a fortress with a gate and security equipment to make sure the man who's been retired for the past 8 years hadn't hurt anyone.

They never found any victims but they did find two grenades, a grenade launcher and an arsenal of weapons including eight rifles, two hand guns and a shotgun.

The bomb squad was called in to handle the grenades and determined they weren't live. Still their presence meant lots of precautions.

"My preliminary assessment, because they are not live ordinance, will not be anything that will be illegal. We'll have to determine where they came from, how long he's had them, who disassembled them, and that will be a question that will be asked during the course of the investigation," Barren said.

Neighbors said the officer mostly kept to himself, and was a bit of a hoarder.

"He collects, stores, and houses many things, including weapons," Barren said.

Around 1:30 p.m. Monday, we streamed police and the bomb squad continuing to investigate the man's home. You can watch that video below.