Detroit — Video evidence corroborated the official story of how a 20-year-old man died after being shot by Detroit police officers on July 10, …
Detroit — Video evidence corroborated the official story of how a 20-year-old man died after being shot by Detroit police officers on July 10, and an autopsy report released Wednesday further backs up statements made by the city’s top cop about the incident. Hours after Detroit police officers fatally shot Hakim Littleton on the city’s west side, with protesters hurling objects at officers and threatening more violence, chief James Craig released video of the shooting. The video, shot from an officer’s body-worn camera, shows Littleton pull a gun from his shorts pocket and fire two shots from about two feet away from a cop who was part of a crew that was at McNichols and San Juan investigating a July 5 mass shooting in which three people were killed and five others wounded. After Littleton fires his pistol, video shows, the officer charges him, while other cops open fire. At a press conference hours later, Craig said three officers had fired four shots, and that they all struck Littleton, one in the head. An autopsy report from the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office, obtained by The Detroit News through a Freedom of Information request, confirmed Craig’s statement. The autopsy, conducted by Chief Wayne County Medical Examiner Carl Schmidt the day after the shooting, ruled the cause of death as homicide, the result of four gunshot wounds — one in the head, two in the right thigh, and one in the left thigh. Schmidt’s report said Littleton was shot in the back of the head; the bullet went through his brain and lodged in his scalp, where it was recovered.
