Criminal charges will not be filed against Wyoming police officers involved in a fatal cemetery shooting.
WYOMING, MI – Criminal charges will not be filed against Wyoming police officers involved in a fatal cemetery shooting.
That’s based on the determination of Kent County’s prosecutor, who issued an official legal opinion Monday, April 23.
Christopher Becker, Kent County prosecuting attorney, wrote that the officers involved, Officer Dwayn Holmberg, Officer Lee Atkinson and Sgt. Ross Eagan, had a reasonable fear that Joel Peloquin, 52, may have fired at them or the bystanders, and they had to make a split-second decision.
„We now know that the movement Mr. Peloquin made was to put the gun to his head to take his own life,“ Becker wrote in the opinion letter. „The officers do not have the luxury to wait and see exactly what he is going to do with that gun as he turns to face them.“
Witness of officer-involved shooting tried to talk man out of suicide
The shooting happened about 5:40 p.m. Friday, March 30, at Resurrection Cemetery along Clyde Park Avenue SW north of 44th Street.
Police said Wyoming officers responded to the cemetery, 4100 Clyde Park Ave. SW, on a report of a suicidal man.
When the Wyoming officers contacted Peloquin, he brandished a firearm and two officers fired and shot him three times, police said.
He then brought the gun to his head and fired the fatal shot, according to police.
Police said the incident was seen by three independent witnesses at the cemetery. Peloquin was transported to the hospital where he later died from his injuries.
The manner of death was listed as suicide by the medical examiner’s officer, according to police. The Kent County Sheriff’s Office investigated the officer-involved shooting.
One of the witnesses to the shooting, Chuck Morgan, 81, told Mlive in a previous interview that he tried talking Peloquin out of ending his own life for 45 minutes.
While Morgan and Peloquin were talking, Morgan’s brother’s granddaughter texted her mother to call the police and explain the situation. When he saw the officers arrive, Morgan said he hoped they would sneak up and tackle the man.
Police shot man 3 times but fatal wound was self-inflicted, autopsy says
But when Peloquin saw the officers, he slipped away from Morgan, pulled a handgun from his jacket, put it to his head, and shot himself, Morgan said.
He said the man never aimed the gun at police nor did he say anything to the officers. He wasn’t sure why police fired at Peloquin, though he believed they fired their guns after the man shot himself.
Morgan said he heard six shots fired, followed by officers instructing him to get away from Peloquin.
One witness in the opinion letter reported not seeing what happened after Peloquin got away from Morgan’s attempt to tackle him, while the other stated she did not know if shots came from Peloquin or police.
Of the shots the officers fired, only three struck Peloquin and none would have been fatal, according to medical examiners.
The fatal shot was the shot to the head, which medical examiners report was a „contact“ wound, meaning the gun was in contact with the head when the shot was fired.
The most serious officer shot struck Peloquin in the right chest and penetrated the lung.
„This was the most serious injury, yet survivable according to the medical examiner,“ the opinion letter states.
Man fires gun at himself at Wyoming cemetery but officers also shoot: police
Another shot struck him in the right thigh, according to the report, and both shots were from the front of the body to the back.
The third shot was to the upper arm and shoulder of Peloquin, which was slightly back to front. The medical examiner explained in the report this would be consistent with the arm of Peloquin bent at the elbow, consistent with someone who would be pointing a gun at his head.
Toxicology showed Peloquin had a blood alcohol level of a .16 the night of his death and no other drugs were detected in his system, according to the letter.
Detectives also discovered a possible motive for his actions, according to Becker’s letter.
The Allegan County Sheriff’s Department had been at Peloquin’s home two days earlier and had seized his computer equipment. He was under investigation for child sexually abusive material, according to Becker’s letter.
In their reports, all three of the Wyoming police officers state they were fearful for the wellbeing of the other people on the scene as well as their own.
In Michigan law, the killing of another person in self-defense by one who is free from fault is justifiable homicide if, under all the circumstances, he honestly and reasonably believes that he is in imminent danger of death or great bodily harm and that it is necessary for him to exercise deadly force.
„The officers were justified in taking the action they did that day,“ Becker wrote. „They had an honest and reasonable belief at that moment Mr. Peloquin was going to shoot at them as he turned suddenly to face them.“
