Motorist killed after shooting officer was mentally ill

[Dv8oR]

I actually witnessed the chase!!!! Yesterday!

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — A Kentwood police officer was marking his 33rd birthday by working an unscheduled overtime shift when he fatally shot a mentally ill man who had shot him in the arm during a traffic stop, police and family members said.

Officer James Morningstar was working road patrol on what was supposed to be his day off Friday when he was shot in a church parking lot on the city's east side. Police said he then fired several shots at Darrell Norwood, one of which struck the suspect in the head.

Norwood, 40, died several hours later at a local hospital. Morningstar was treated for a fractured arm and released after taking a bullet in his upper left arm just below the shoulder, Kentwood Police Chief Richard Mattice said.

Relatives of Norwood described him as a schizophrenic who lived in a group home for the mentally disabled near Grand Rapids. He had taken a bus Wednesday to Benton Harbor to spend Thanksgiving with relatives and had taken his grandparents' Chevrolet Cavalier on Friday along with two guns hidden in drawers.

"We were trying to find out why was the car missing, and we called the township police," his grandfather, William Norwood, told The Grand Rapids Press for a Saturday story. "I never known him to drive a car."

Norwood's relatives said he had spent time in a psychiatric hospital and had been in and out of prison, and records show he has served time for assault and weapons charges. His aunt, Samella Norwood, said her nephew seemed withdrawn Friday morning and did not speak.

The incident began after Morningstar responded to reports of a vehicle driving erratically on the East Beltline freeway. The officer caught up to the car and pulled it over up a steep driveway to the parking lot.

As Morningstar approached the suspect's car, Norwood fired at him with a revolver "at relatively close range," Mattice said.

"Our officer fired back several times, about three to five more times," the chief said. "It appears he was hit once in the head, that was the fatal one."

Afterward, Morningstar managed to return to his patrol car and radio for assistance.

Mattice said it's unclear why Norwood fired on the officer, who was wearing a bulletproof vest.

Morningstar and his wife, Stephanie, were hired by the Kentwood Police Department six years ago.