A Detroit police officer shot an armed man who was wanted for multiple violent crimes, following a high-speed vehicle chase that ended in a rollover crash and a foot pursuit through the city’s Cass Corridor in broad daylight, Detroit police officials said.
The incident happened Nov. 14, although Detroit police officials announced it Monday in a Critical Incident Community Briefing posted on YouTube.
The post included helicopter video footage showing the suspect, 33-year-old Terrance Davis, allegedly trying to carjack two vehicles, and shooting at U.S. Bureau of Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives agents during one of the attempts, minutes before he was shot by the Detroit officer at Cass near Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
Davis, who is on probation for two gun offenses from 2023, was wanted for a nonfatal shooting and 11 other shooting incidents during an alleged crime spree last month, Detroit Police Cmdr. Matthew Fulgenzi said in the video.
“These incidents included shots fired into occupied dwellings, vehicles and neighborhoods,” Fulgenzi said.
Davis was indicted Dec. 10 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan with multiple crimes, including attempted murder of ATF special agents, carjacking, and discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence. He faces up to life in prison if convicted of the attempted murder charge.
Davis’ attorney, Rhonda Brazile of the Federal Defender Office, did not immediately respond Thursday to a phone call for comment.
Six of the shootings allegedly linked to Davis happened on Detroit’s west side on Nov. 5 between 7:37 p.m. and 10:25 p.m. The briefing video included audio from a 911 call reporting the day’s last shooting at a home in the 13600 block of Washburn near Schaefer and Grand River.
“My son just got shot. I need an ambulance,” the victim’s mother told a dispatcher.
When the dispatcher asked who the shooter was, the woman said, “I don’t know, he don’t know, I don’t know.”
The victim grabbed the phone and said, “I’m about to die; hurry up, please. … I’m shot in my shoulder and neck, somewhere, you’ve got to come.”
The dispatcher asked to talk to the victim’s mother again. “I’m sending help, just stay on the line with me,” she said.
The Detroit police video also provides footage from Nov. 14, from a DPD helicopter hovering over a house in an undisclosed location, that shows Davis run from the dwelling with Detroit police officers, Michigan State Police troopers and ATF agents closing in.
Davis is seen getting into an SUV and driving over the sidewalk and through front lawns before sideswiping a house and continuing out of the frame. The officers were ordered to abandon the chase and allow the Detroit police helicopter to pursue Davis, Fulgenzi said.
The helicopter footage shows Davis pull up in front of a business on Grand River near Indiana.
“The subject was observed handing an unknown object to an unknown individual,” Fulgenzi said.
Davis pulled away just as a Michigan State Police cruiser approached his SUV from behind, the video shows.
With the state police in pursuit, Davis pulled into the parking lot of Legend Liquor at Livernois and Cranshaw. As the troopers approached on foot, the suspect again drove off, heading northbound on Livernois, before pulling into a Citgo gas station.
Gas station surveillance video shows Davis drive up to a pump and allegedly try to carjack a man who was pumping gas. The man, whose face is blurred out, runs into the station, and Davis drives away.
After traveling a few blocks north, Davis stopped, jumped out of his SUV and approached another vehicle. The driver “has both his hands up and surrenders the vehicle,” Fulgenzi said.
“ATF agents pull up to the carjacking in progress,” Fulgenzi said. “The subject exchanged gunfire with ATF agents during the carjacking.”
Although ATF agents fired several shots, none hit Davis, Fulgenzi said.
As Davis drove away, the video shows him reach out of the driver’s-side window and fire multiple shots, according to Fulgenzi.
Michigan State Police vehicles chased Davis into the Cass Corridor area of Midtown, where troopers executed a pit maneuver, nudging the vehicle’s rear quarter panel and causing it to roll over on Martin Luther King Blvd., about a block east of Cass.
Cradling what police said was a pistol in his right hand, Davis gets out of the vehicle and runs westbound, as a Detroit officer engages his cruiser’s loudspeaker to warn pedestrians to vacate the area “due to the subject’s violent behavior and threat to the public,” Fulgenzi said.
“(A Detroit police officer) exits his scout car and approaches the subject, who is running towards him,” Fulgenzi said. “(The officer) gave multiple orders for the subject to drop the weapon. (The officer) fires multiple shots at the subject.”
