Police Chief IDs Detroit Precinct Shooter
Detroit (WWJ) - A relative of the gunman who was killed after shooting four Detroit Police officers at a Detroit police station Sunday has been sentenced in a double murder case.
The 38-year-old Lamar Moore has been identified as the gunman in the police station shootings. Monday afternoon, his brother, Venson Hibbitt, was sentenced to 30-to-60 years for the killings at a Detroit auto repair shop.
Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee says, although there's speculation that Moore was upset about his brother's sentencing, it doesn't explain the shootings.
"We can's speculate as to motive," Godbee said. "I mean, there's nothing in this that makes sense at all," he said.
Chaos erupted, Sunday, as the gunman shot four officers before he was fatally shot at the 6th precinct, located on Plymouth Road west of the Southfield Freeway.
Officials say they all are going to be okay. Commander Brian Davis, who was in charge of the precinct, and Officer David Anderson were reported in stable condition, Monday. Sergeant Ray Saati and Sergeant Carrie Schulz were both treated and discharged.
Godbee says the shooting makes him take a pause of the job they have in front of them.
"Incidents like this are very sobering and remind us just how vulnerable we all are, especially in the public sector, where we offer our lives every day to public service," Godbee said. "So, we have to be extra vigilant. I owe it to my officers; we owe it to our officers to take a look at security procedures at all of our facilities."
Unlike a number of suburban police departments, Detroit precincts don't have metal detectors and the front desks are not fitted with plastic-type shields. They do have security cameras, but those are some of the issues that they're going to review following Sunday's incident.
Godbee said the security video of the event shows "heroic" acts. He said he plans to release the footage for public viewing.
"The eyes of the world are really on the incident. So, to the extent we can learn lessons from this; to the extent, we can show the heroism of our officers, and just how well-trained and what they did under pressure, I think that it's a story we need to tell publicly," Godbee said.
Rev. Jerome Warfield, chair of the Detroit Police Board of Commissioners, visited the precinct with other members of the board after leaving the hospital where the wounded officers are being treated. He says officers at the precinct "are still somewhat shocked that this happened.''
Meantime, family and friends of Moore are trying to make sense out of what happened. A spokeswoman for Moore's family, Paula Hodges, said the police did what they had to do -- but the family is trying to figure out what set him off.
She says they can't imagine him doing that -- that he just wasn't that kind of person.
A friend of Moore's, John Sellers, said he was surprised, and that Moore always had a smile on his face. Sellers says he told a friend that something must have sent him over the edge.
Sellers said that if you go into a police station, even with the gun raised, it's like committing suicide.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
