PORT SHELDON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — The suspect in a Muskegon homicide was shot and killed by law enforcement officers in Ottawa County Sunday.
Investigators are only identifying the man killed as a 27-year-old from West Olive.
The officer-involved shooting happened outside the suspect's mobile home on Brickersville Drive at West Olive Estates, which is in the area of 146th Avenue and Stanton Street.
"The 27-year-old male had ... his wife at gunpoint, presented outside, with a gun to her head. And the officers engaged the 27-year-old, where he was shot and is deceased," Ottawa County Sheriff's Office Capt. Mark Bennett said.
Bennett said the officers' actions saved the wife's life and protected others.
The situation began just after 7:20 a.m. with a shooting at house divided up in to apartments on Merrill Avenue near 6th Street in Muskegon. Investigators say the suspect drove there with his wife.
"I heard two pops and I looked out the window to see the guy run to his car. There was a skinnier passenger in his car. And they took off," Margie Dasko, who lives nearby, said.
When officers arrived, they discovered a man and woman had been shot.
Neighbors said the 29-year-old man was shot in the head when he opened the door. He died at the scene. One neighbor said she came outside and saw emergency responders and the man's body lying on the porch.
The 25-year-old woman was taken to an area hospital and was listed in fair condition later Sunday. Neighbors said a bullet grazed her face.
The names of the man killed and the woman injured will not be released until their families have been notified.
Around 7:30 a.m., the suspect's wife's mother called Ottawa County Central Dispatch and said the suspect may have been involved in the homicide.
"At 7 o'clock this morning we got a call from (our daughter)," the wife's father James Grubb told 24 Hour News 8. "She says, 'I can't talk long because he told me to keep my phone off. He's got me at gunpoint. He's going into a house right now.' She said the next thing she saw was a guy running out of the house. He looked like he had been shot. The next thing she knew, she heard was another shot of a person in the house."
After the suspect and his wife returned home, the wife contacted Ottawa County Central Dispatch and said she was in danger. She continued to communicate with dispatchers via text message.
When sheriff's deputies and city of Holland police officers arrived at the pair's home, they saw the man was armed. He went into the house and then came out holding a gun to his wife's head. Officers told the man to drop the gun. When he didn't, the sheriff's office said, officers shot him.
His wife was not hurt.
Grubb, the wife's father, said police had been called to the couple's home before when the husband was firing shots. He said the couple has a 5-year-old son.
The Muskegon Police Department is investigating the homicide. Anyone with information is asked to call Muskegon police at 231.724.6750 or Silent Observer at 231.722.7463.
Michigan State Police are handling the investigation into the officer-involved shooting. It's common for an outside agency to handle an officer-involved shooting.