Slain DPD officer's funeral today • Monkeypox growing in Michigan • Incoming heat wave
MONDAY NEWS HIT - Fallen Detroit Police officer Loren Courts will be laid to rest Monday following a funeral service at the Greater Grace Temple.
The reception is expected to be several hundred strong as both members from the city and police departments around the country will pay their respects for the killed police officer. He was died from gunshot wounds he sustained responding to reports of shots being fired.
Courts leaves behind a wife, a 15-year-old son and a 9-year-old daughter, all of who thought the world of their dad. It's a sentiment that stretches throughout the department as well.
"He served the city of Detroit with love, conviction, compassion, integrity, and honor," said Deputy Jennifer Tyler of the 2nd Precinct. "Officer Loren Courts, job well done."
The funeral will be one of the final days of ceremonies honoring the officer. Public viewings were held over the weekend while a prayer vigil was held Friday. Colleagues, friends, and family - including his wife Kristine - gathered at the corner of Grand River and Leisure Friday night to celebrate the five-year veteran of the department.
"It is truly a calling to become a Detroit police officer especially in these difficult times and Officer Courts had that calling," said Cmdr. Michael Chambers, 2nd Precinct. "He loved this city, the department, this precinct."
DPD Chief James White was also in attendance, speaking fondly of the 2nd precinct deputy.
"I wish I had the words to make you feel better," White said. "My heart is broken for you. This is a beautiful family. He was a beautiful, honorable man and the men and women of this department love him."
White gave an official count of Courts' shooting death on July 7, the day after both he and his partner Officer Amanda Hudgens found themselves under fire from a man wielding a Draco AK-47-style pistol. Hudgens has since spoken with FOX 2 about her experiences that day.
"I remember seeing the muzzle flash and hearing the shots," she said. "I yelled some cuss words and then I yelled 'Loren!'
They were partners on the Special Operations Team the last three years, they spent long shifts, in Scout Car 236 – listening to old-school hip-hop and keeping the streets safe, celebrating the wins with a special handshake.
In Courts' final breaths, Hudgens is described as focusing her efforts trying to keep her partner alive, rather than face the suspect who White said was advancing on her before other officers shot him. The shooter, a 19-year-old man had been accused of being involved in a shooting in Eastpointe in June.
More Coverage:
- Wife of slain DPD officer says last text to him was 'I'm always going to worry about you'
- 'An even better person': Dad of slain officer Loren Courts says he was universally loved
- Gunman who killed DPD officer accused of shooting at Eastpointe prom party in June
Courts' funeral service is scheduled to start at 11:30 a.m. at the Greater Grace Temple on 23500 W. Seven Mile Road. He'll be buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery in Detroit.
Monkeypox cases in Michigan rise to 13
Michigan's monkeypox count has climbed to 13, the latest virus that health officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as the state health department are tracking as it's spread continues to climb around the country.
It's unclear where every case has been detected, but previous reports from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services have shown it already in Metro Detroit, including in Oakland County and Detroit.
Globally, more than 12,500 cases have been confirmed.
Monekypox, which spreads from direct contact with an infectious rash or scabs and bodily fluids, comes from the same family as smallpox. Symptoms include fatigue and body aches. Monkeypox is "not another Covid," according to medical officials. Instead, it's spreading within certain communities.
Read more about how the virus spreads and the relevant vaccine here.
2 rescued from Lake Erie boat capsize
Two people were saved overnight in Lake Erie after their boat overturned in the water.
The Monroe County Sheriff's Office received a call from one of the two people in the water about the overturned boat at 3:30 a.m. The Marine Unit responded to the area Sunday with local fire departments and the United States Coast Guard.
Both victims were rescued from the water around 4:13 a.m. by the USCG and taken to shore in Bolles Harbor, Monroe Twp.
The recovery of the overturned boat is ongoing. The Sheriff's Office Marine Unit is working with area towboats. A safety broadcast for the submerged boat was put out by the USCG.
Read what the sheriff had to say here.
Gas prices still falling around Michigan
More good news on the gas price front: they're still falling. Michigan's average has plunged 56 cents from last month when drivers were hit with $5.19 a gallon. Currently, travelers are paying $4.16 a gallon.
Michigan gas prices remain slightly higher than the national average and the cheapest prices aren't in Metro Detroit. Drivers would need to go to the Upper Peninsula or Alpena for those prices.
According to GasBuddy data, the costs fell in spite of demand rising. It also sounds like President Joe Biden's meeting with the Saudi government won't yield any more production of oil than what is already coming out. And if analyst Patrick De Haan's projection is correct, the national average should dip below $4 by Aug. 14.
Some of Michigan's highest prices remain in the Metro area, with Wayne County coming out as the only county in Southeast Michigan with prices below average.
Read more gas price stories here.
Mary Barra, GM CEO standing by company's ambitious EV pledge
The economy is a bit wobbly, but General Motors CEO Mary Barra isn’t backing off of an audacious prediction: By the middle of this decade, her company will sell more electric vehicles in the U.S. than Tesla, the global sales leader.
To fulfill that pledge in as little as 2 1/2 years, she faces some long odds against immense economic forces that are working against auto sales. Inflation has spiked, interest rates are rising, material costs have soared and a global shortage of computer chips is still braking assembly lines at GM and other companies.
But in an interview with The Associated Press, Barra said she’s confident GM can unseat Tesla with higher-priced specialty vehicles, and it will beat Elon Musk to high-range EVs at prices that people can afford.
Last year GM sold just 25,000 electric vehicles in the U.S., less than one-tenth of the estimated 352,000 sold by Tesla. Although EV sales are rising dramatically, they’re still only about 5% of the U.S. new vehicle market, with many Americans still reluctant to change.
– Courtesy of the Associated Press
Live on FOX 2
What else we're watching
- Ann Arbor is the most educated city in the U.S., according to WalletHub. The list was compiled from 150 of the largest metro regions across 11 key metrics, like the share of adults with a bachelor's degree and the racial education gap present in the community.
- In addition to gas prices falling, one non-profit president is doing a $20,000 gas giveaway in Oak Park Monday. Those who get gas at 13500 W. Eight Mile at the Shell gas station will see some relief worth $40 at the pump.
- A Ferndale-based firm is donating firearm detection security systems to K-12 school systems in hope of preventing more gun violence within American schools. They'll make their announcement of where the systems are going at an Open House at their facility in Ferndale.
- Elton John's Yellow Brick Road tour at Comerica Park is set to kick off Monday at 8 p.m. It's part of the singer's farewell concert series at 30 stadiums around the country.
- A Roseville roller rink is hosting a fundraiser for the fallen Detroit police officer from 6 to 8 p.m. The cost for admission at The Great Skate Roller Rink on Hayes Road will send proceeds to help the family of Officer Loren Courts.
Daily Forecast
Prepare for a hot week. At least three 90-degree days are expected to heat up the region as scorching temperatures will blanket Michigan and much of the U.S. during the mid-summer period. Less rain is expected as well as a pressure change, which might reveal at least a little more sunlight.
Damning report, new footage show chaos of Uvalde response
A damning report and hours of body camera footage further laid bare the chaotic response to a mass shooting at a Uvalde elementary school, where hundreds of law enforcement officers massed but then waited to confront the gunman even after a child trapped with the shooter called 911.
The findings of an investigative committee released Sunday were the first to criticize both state and federal law enforcement, and not just local authorities in the South Texas city for the bewildering inaction by heavily armed officers as a gunman fired inside two adjoining fourth-grade classrooms at Robb Elementary School, killing 19 students and two teachers.
Footage from city police officers' body cameras made public hours later only further emphasized the failures — and fueled the anger and frustration of relatives of the victims.
"It’s disgusting. Disgusting," said Michael Brown, whose 9-year-old son was in the school's cafeteria on the day of the shooting and survived. "They’re cowards."