CATO TOWNSHIP, Mich. — A 40-year-old Michigan man was shot and killed by a state trooper after the man wounded a sheriff’s deputy with a crossbow arrow.
The trooper and a Montcalm County deputy were shot at with the crossbow while serving an arrest warrant Friday night at the man’s Cato Township home, state police Lt. Kevin Sweeney told The Associated Press Saturday.
The deputy was struck in the side and was stable Saturday following surgery. The Cato Township man, who has not been identified, was shot at least once by the trooper and died at the scene.
The trooper has been with the state police about 2 1/2 years and as part of department police was placed on administrative duty while the shooting is being investigated.
State police “policy permits officers to point or discharge a firearm in self-defense or defense of another when he or she reasonably believes there is imminent danger of death or great bodily harm,” Sweeney wrote in a news release.
Neighbor Kevin Schultz told MLive.com that there was a confrontation between the man and Schultz’s family on Friday morning, in which the man accused them of stealing his marijuana and later displayed a hunting knife.
Schultz also said the man told them him and his father what he would do if police showed up.
“He said if they come up to my house, they aren’t taking me alive,” Schultz told the newspaper.
Schultz said police went to his neighbor’s home just before midnight Friday and the man’s wife opened the door.
“I thought I could see a cop drop, then I saw muzzle fire,” Schultz said.
Cato Township is about 50 miles northeast of Grand Rapids.
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