The incident began when a passing motorist called 911 reporting that a man was walking the wrong way on US127, the sheriff’s office said in a Facebook statement.
Deputies arrived on scene and located the man. He was contacted and would not obey the deputies commands.
During the contact, the man produced multiple knives. De-escalation efforts continued for minutes, according to Sheriff Scott Wriggelsworth. The sheriff also said that before the deputies fatally shot the knife-wielding man that they attempted to TASER him. The TASER deployment was unsuccessful.
Deputies rendered aid to the wounded man, but he died at the scene.
A short video on social media claimed that the suspect was handcuffed when he was shot. The sheriff’s office issued a statement countering that claim.
“We are aware of a video of this event that has surfaced on social media. A citizen can be heard in the video stating, ‘he’s got handcuffs on.’ We can confirm that the individual was not handcuffed when officers confronted him; he was armed with multiple knives.”
“Law enforcement officers make their decisions based on the totality of their circumstances, not a 2-dimensional video, that captures 10 seconds of a 13-plus-minute encounter,” said Wriggelsworth said during a press conference.
The incident is under investigation by the Michigan State Police.