LeDuff: Exclusive Video Shows Detroit's Keystone Cops Almost Shoot Each Other

November 20, 2017, 11:09 PM

Charlie LeDuff is a former reporter for Fox 2, the New York Times and Detroit News. He is the author of the 2014 book,"Detroit: An American Autopsy." His latest book, "SH*TSHOW," comes out in May.  He is a Deadline Detroit contributor.

By Charlie LeDuff

Cops don't like cops shoving guns in their faces, either.

What was pawned-off last week as a "Keystone Cops" fist fight nearly resulted in a blue-on-blue shooting, calling into question the Detroit Police Department's use of force, training and treatment of its citizens under the cover of darkness.

A seven-minute video obtained exclusively by Deadline Detroit shows plainclothes officers from the 11th Precinct jumping out of unmarked cars and racking their shotguns. Without clearly identifying themselves, the officers tell bystanders to "Get the fuck down!" (34-second mark) while pointing guns at their heads and backs. 

As it turns out, the bystanders were actually undercover officers from the 12th Precinct, working their own buy-and-bust sting. But the cops from the 11th did not know that. For all they knew, they could have been drug dealers or a family taking out garbage.

On the video, officers from the 12th repeatedly identify themselves as police, to which they're told to "Shut the fuck up!" (:41).

Moments later, the officers from the 11th run a block to raid a suspected drug house for which they had had a warrant. Protocol requires a marked car to first pull in front of a raid house with lights flashing to protect the police. That was not done. Moreover, it is illegal for an officer to level a firearm without justifiable cause.

Nothing was found in the raided house except for an elderly woman with a legally registered firearm. Afterwards, two undercover crews converged on the porch to duke it out. (4:13) One cop puts his hand on his pistol. Another tells him to relax.

"Mother fucker had a fucking shotgun to my back!" screams an undercover from the 12th (5:21). "Who the fuck was it?"

"We didn't know who you were!" shouts a cop from the 11th.

"It doesn't fucking matter!" says the cop from the 12th, challenging the justification that it would have been OK if he were a civilian.

"It doesn't fucking matter!" repeats his partner.

"We yelled police when you pulled up," says a third. "You put a gun in my face. Fuck you!"

Another cop from the 11th responds: "We didn't know you were police goddamit! Why would I pull a fucking gun on you if I knew you were police?"

"Why you putting a gun on the regular people for?" shouts the cop from the 12th. "That's what the fuck's wrong with y'all!"

The office of Chief James Craig did not respond to a request for comment.



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