Private Autopsy: Dearborn Police Shot Unarmed Man 5-6 Times

DEARBORN, MI – An unarmed man shot dead by a Dearborn police officer last December sustained six gunshot wounds, including one from “very close range,” according to a private autopsy report obtained by the Detroit Free Press.

The family of Kevin Matthews, 36, requested the autopsy, conducted by Dr. Bader J. Cassin, a former Wayne County medical examiner.

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The report was forwarded to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, according to the family’s attorney, Milton Greenman. He said in a Free Press interview that the autopsy revealed “evidence of intent” and showed the shooting “isn't an example of an accidental shooting" where "the gun goes off."

Cassin wrote in the report that Matthews, whose family says suffered from mental health problems and was unarmed, died of multiple gunshot wounds.

Matthews also had several abrasions and a contusion, according to the report.

The Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office has been largely silent on its autopsy report, releasing the cause of death as multiple gunshot wounds, but declining to offer more details.

In a statement released after the shooting, Dearborn police said the officer, who has since been placed on administrative leave, struggled with Matthews, who was wanted on an outstanding misdemeanor probation violation warrant. The police department has also said that Matthews was going for the officer’s gun.

"The officer approached the subject, a 36-year-old Detroit resident, and the subject fled on foot," Dearborn police said in the December statement. "The officer chased the subject and encountered him several houses away, in Detroit, where a struggle ensued. Subsequently, the officer fired his department-issued weapon, striking the subject."

The U.S. Department of Justice said two weeks ago that it will review the Dearborn Police Department’s use of force practices, provide training on de-escalation tactics and help the department develop hiring policies to increase the diversity of the police force.

Matthews was one of two African-Americans shot in a one-month period in confrontations with Dearborn police. Matthews’ shooting sparked protests amid claims that black residents are targeted for arrest by officers in predominantly white Dearborn.

The police-involved fatal shooting of another black Detroit resident a month later only intensified calls for reform. Police have defended the use of force in the fatal shooting of Janet Wilson, who allegedly tried to run over a police officer with her car.

However, her family and others said that police should have considered methods other than deadly force to stop Wilson, who they said suffers from mental illness. Wilson was shot on Hubbard drive after an incident with mall security officers at nearby Fairlane Town Center on Jan. 27.

“This is a murder,” Wilson’s niece, Cassie Bass said at a news conference in early February. “If I was a murderer, I would be behind bars, underneath the jail.”