Residents Describe Fear, Bias at Emotional Meeting Following Release of ELPD Shooting Footage

Dozens of residents protesting the fatal police shooting of Isaiah Kirby, a 21-year-old Black man, marched from City Hall to the Hannah Community Center prior to Tuesday’s City Council meeting. 

The protest came days after police released footage of the shooting and featured many residents who held signs with the word RESIGN. Many speakers said the footage of the shooting showed excessive force, detailed their own negative experiences with police, and called for Police Chief Jennifer Brown and City Manager Robert Belleman to resign.

Later in the meeting, some members of the City Council raised vague concerns about officers actions and asked Brown questions about ELPD policies and the investigatory process into the four officers involved in the incident. 

Footage released by the city last week shows Kirby, who is suspected of stabbing a man prior to the shooting, running along Abbot Road in the direction of officers when he is shot several times. Many of the speakers at Tuesday’s meeting raised concerns about shots that were fired while Kirby was already on the ground. 

Concerns about policing in East Lansing extend beyond this incident. For months before the shooting, residents have been raising broader concerns about bias in East Lansing policing, a point that was raised by several residents at the meeting.

“We’ve been asking, we’ve been asking, we’ve been asking and you guys just are not listening,” said Josh Hewitt, who serves on the city’s Human Rights Commission.  

Police Oversight Commissioner Rasha Thomas, who is Black, said he fears for his children’s safety when they visit him in East Lansing because of negative experiences he has had with ELPD officers. He recalled conversations he had with his children about what to do if they are pulled over.

“I’m like ‘Son, just be still, you can reach the dashboard from where you’re at,” Thomas said. “Daughter … roll all the windows down, hit the dome lights … ‘Why? So you don’t die.’”

After comments from the public, some members of the City Council urged the public to let due process play out and voiced their own thoughts on the shooting. 

Councilmember Mark Meadows shared a belief expressed by several residents that Kirby was experiencing a mental health crisis. 

Meadows said the video raised “a number of issues” to him and he will have further comments about that at “the correct time.”

Councilmember Kerry Ebersole Singh said she is “sad, angry and sick” after viewing the video. She called the video “incredibly disturbing” and said she has submitted questions to the city manager and city attorneys about what the footage showed. 

“This is going to be a long road ahead,” Singh said. “I don’t pretend that this is something that [has] an easy set of solutions.”

ELPD leaders field questions from the council. 

Following council communications, city leaders left for a roughly hour-long closed door meeting with city attorneys. 

By the time the closed-session ended, all but a few residents had left the meeting. Police and fire department leaders gave brief presentations on recent operations. Following the police department’s presentation, Brown, Capt. Adrian Ojerio and Assistant Chief Matt Kreft fielded questions related to the shooting and the Michigan State Police, or MSP, investigation into the officers involved.

Singh and Meadows each asked about the process investigations into the officers involved will follow. 

Ojerio said that an ELPD administrator will conduct an investigation into the incident after the MSP completes its investigation. The MSP investigation could take more than a year, a city attorney clarified. The ELPD’s subsequent internal investigation is expected to take several months, Ojerio said. 

During the investigations, police administration have “flexibility” to determine whether officers remain on administrative leave or return to the police force, Brown said.

Mayor Pro Tem Chuck Grigsby asked how officers are trained to assess threats. 

Ojerio said officers are trained to take into account three different factors: The severity of the crimes they are responding to, the immediacy of the threat to officers and the public, and active resistance or flight from the person they are responding to. 

“It is very situational,” Ojerio said. “They have to take in the totality of the circumstances with the information that they know.”

Grigsby said that during the video he saw some officers calling for non-lethal measures, before more shots were fired. He asked the police panel to address the level of force used during the response. 

Brown said the ELPD cannot speak specifically about the incident because department administrators have not interviewed the officers involved, as MSP is carrying out its investigation. 

Grigsby asked how long it took for paramedics to render aid to Kirby after the shooting. Brown again declined to speak about the specific incident, but said police policy is to wait until the scene is stable before allowing medics to render aid.