Jackson, Mich., shootout leaves 2 dead, including officer
3/9/2010JACKSON, Mich. — A man opened fire at two police officers who were responding to a domestic disturbance call, killing one officer and wounding the other early Tuesday before being fatally shot, authorities said.
The shootout occurred around 12:30 a.m. when the officers entered 63-year-old Elvin Potts' home in Jackson, a city about 70 miles west of Detroit.
Potts revealed a handgun and shot at the officers three times, police said. One officer returned fire, killing Potts.
Jackson police Officer James Bonneau, 26, was pronounced dead at a hospital, Jackson County Undersheriff Tom Finco said.
Darrin McIntosh, a 22-year-old Blackman Township public safety officer, was listed in good condition after undergoing surgery at Allegiance Health hospital, spokesman Shannon Scholten said.
Bonneau and McIntosh initally went to the home of Potts's estranged wife in Blackman Township after she called 911 to report that Potts had threatened by phone to kill her, Finco said. Potts then went to the woman's house around 11 p.m. Monday but left when she wouldn't let him inside, and the officers went to Potts' home to look for him, the undersheriff said.
According to the Jackson Citizen Patriot, Bonneau was the sixth Jackson police officer killed in the line of duty since 1893 and the first since 1978.
Bonneau's family has begun making funeral arrangements, his father, Marc, said from his home in the Detroit suburb of Canton Township.
“This is hard. When I think about it, it's hard,” said Marc Bonneau, who works at the Michigan State Police crime lab in Northville. “I just don't believe it.”
James Bonneau graduated from Canton High School in 2002. By then, the Sept. 11 terror attacks had inspired him to pursue a law enforcement career, his father said. Bonneau studied criminal justice at Schoolcraft College and Eastern Michigan University and joined the Jackson Police Department in 2007.
Bonneau had a girlfriend and is survived by his parents, a sister and a brother.