Video shows man exchange gunfire with Lansing police
Christopher Haxel
LANSING - Officials on Tuesday released video footage that shows a Lansing police officer exchanging gunfire with a man who police later shot and critically wounded on March 31 in south Lansing.
Police were looking for Michael Magik Jones after a shots fired call near the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Mary Avenue, Lansing Police Chief Mike Yankowski previously said.
Around 11 a.m., a uniformed officer driving a patrol car nearly a mile north of the original incident spotted Jones near the intersection of MLK and Dunlap Street, he said.
The footage, released Tuesday in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, shows the same incident from two angles – first from the dashboard camera of the officer's car, then from her body-worn camera.
What the video shows
In the first view, two police vehicles can be seen pulling up alongside a man, later identified by police as Jones, who is walking north in the sidewalk along the road.
The officer exits her car and approaches Jones from behind, then yells, "Lansing police, stop."
She again yells for Jones to stop, just as Jones begins to run away. Jones appears to fire once at the officer, who then appears to return fire twice.
The footage also shows dirt kicked up from an apparent bullet strike several feet behind the officer. She was not injured in the incident.
Police previously said Jones, 26, ran northeast into an industrial area after exchanging gunfire with police.
Second gunfire exchange not recorded on video
About an hour later troopers in a Michigan State Police helicopter spotted Jones hiding between a concrete barrier and building at an abandoned lumberyard, Yankowski said.
When the department's tactical team approached Jones, he fired at its vehicle, Yankowski said. Officers returned fire moments later and hit Jones "multiple times," he said.
None of the officers involved in the second gunfire exchange had body-worn cameras, Lansing Police Public Information Director Robert Merritt said. The tactical vehicle did not have a camera either, he said.
The department began using body cameras in 2016, although only patrol officers regularly use them, Yankowski told the State Journal last year.
Jones was initially listed in critical condition after being shot by police, but has since been released from the hospital. He faces attempted murder and other charges, but has been referred to the state's Center for Forensic Psychiatry to determine if he is competent to stand trial.
Jones' attorney could not immediately be reached Tuesday. His competency is set to be reviewed at an August hearing in Lansing's 54A District Court.
Contact Christopher Haxel at 517-377-1261 or chaxel@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @ChrisHaxel.
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