Detroit Man Attempts to Turn Himself in for Double Homicide... Police Too Busy to Arrest Him

A Detroit man suspected of fatally shooting two men attempted to turn himself in on Saturday but, to his surprise, there were apparently no police officers available to take him into custody.

The shooting occurred at around 1:30 a.m. Saturday in Detroit, a city grappling with high crime rates. Witnesses said several people were attending a "social event" when the suspect, identified only as a 36-year-old male, lost his temper in an altercation, pulled out a gun and started shooting, WDIV reports. After the smoke cleared, two men were dead and two others wounded. The shooter fled the scene in his car.

About two hours after the shooting, Detroit police say the suspect arrived at a Detroit Fire Engine Station and said he was involved in the deadly shooting that night, seemingly turning himself in. The fire station called the police, expecting them to rush to the station to pick up the murder suspect. Instead, the police told them that area patrol units were too busy "handling high priority runs" and therefore "no units were dispatched to the location," according to the report.

This allowed the suspect to actually leave the fire station on his own free will. Fortunately, the suspected shooter went directly to the 10th Police Precinct where he was finally taken into custody.

Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee announced late Saturday that the department would be launching an administrative investigation to figure out why the appropriate resources were not made available.

"Every effort to ensure that this person was taken into custody should have occurred," Godbee said in a statement. "Therefore an administrative investigation will be conducted to determine if this police run was handled appropriately and to ascertain if there were any other patrol resources which should have been made available to respond to the Detroit Fire Engine Quarters."

The two men who died in the shooting were identified only as a 23-year-old and a 37-year-old. Two other men, 19 and 34, were listed in serious condition Saturday, according to police.

After learning about the bizarre incident, Detroit Fire Department Senior Chief Lewis Roelans said, "Isn’t it ironic? You call for the police and even we can’t get them."

Front page image courtesy of mlive.com.