Woman Shot By Dearborn Police 'Killed . . . Worse Than a Dog': Activist

DEARBORN, MI – The family of Janet Wilson, 31, who was shot multiple times and killed by a Dearborn police officer a week ago, called for justice at a news conference Wednesday.

Wilson was shot by a Dearborn officer police on Hubbard Drive after an incident with mall security officers at nearby Fairlane Town Center on Jan. 27.

“I don’t want you to turn a blind eye to this,” her niece Cassie Bass said, according to a report by WWJ. “This cannot happen, this cannot keep going on. Injustice for one, injustice for all. Who is policing the police? They gunned my auntie down. She didn’t have a weapon.”

Authorities with the Michigan State Police are investigating the late afternoon shooting, the second Dearborn police-involved shooting of an unarmed suspect in about a month.

Last week, State Police First Lt. Michael Shaw said Wilson appears to have deliberately tried to hit a security guard with her Chevy HHR outside the Fairlane Town Center Mall. Dearborn police were called, and after Wilson was briefly stopped in heavy traffic, she “started to speed away, almost striking an officer.”

That’s when the officer opened fire.

Bass and other members of Wilson’s family disputed the police account of what happened and questioned the use of deadly force, according to a report in the Detroit Free Press.

“This is a murder,” Bass said. “If I was a murderer, I would be behind bars, underneath the jail.”

Bass said her aunt, who family members described as “mentally challenged” but able to work and keep a car and a home, “was no confrontational person.”

Minister and Detroit activist Malik Shabazz said police could have employed other methods, such as throwing stop sticks on the road or shooting out the vehicle’s tires, to deter Wilson.

“Janet Wilson was killed ... worse than a dog,” he said.

“Something unacceptable happened,” Shabazz said. “The community’s eyes are on this.”

Civil rights activists have raised questions of racial profiling by Dearborn officers. Kevin Matthews, 35, was shot during a struggle with a Dearborn police officer after he crossed the border from Dearborn to Detroit during a foot chase on Dec. 23. Matthews was wanted on a misdemeanor warrant from Redford Township, and escaped from police custody in a larceny case, police have said.

Several rallies have been held in protest. At Wednesday’s news conference, Shabazz said policy changes are needed “in Dearborn and everywhere.”

“We want to know what happened,” Shabazz said. “We want justice.”

Family members have asked witnesses who haven’t been interviewed by Michigan State Police to step forward. An attorney for the family, Vince Colella, said business surveillance video or cellphone video taken by passersby may contain valuable evidence.

“If there were shots fired into this vehicle before it started to advance towards this officer ... that would be excessive force,” Colella said.

In a statement after Wilson was fatally shot, Dearborn Police Chief Ronald Haddad said his department is “deeply saddened by the two officer-involved fatal shooting incidents,” both are which are under investigation by State Police and other independent agencies.

“Upon conclusion of the criminal investigations we will be conducting internal reviews on both of these incidents,” Haddad said. “While we are very proud of our long history of Civil Rights advocacy as well as our history of appropriate use of force, we will closely examine all of our policies and procedures to ensure that we are employing the latest training and following national best practices in all of our responsibilities to the community.”

The family also said it had created a GoFundMe account to pay for funeral expenses.