1 arrested after police shot at
No injuries as police tactical teams called in
ALPENA TOWNSHIP — No one was hurt and one person was arrested after police said they were shot at while attempting to serve an arrest warrant this morning in Alpena Township.
Police were not able to confirm if the person arrested was the same person who allegedly fired the gunshot.
The alleged shooting is still under investigation, Alpena County Sheriff Steve Kieliezewsk said.
Acting on information that a wanted man was at a trailer home in a heavily wooded area behind a business near the intersection of U.S.-23 South and Partridge Point Road North, deputies approached the residence at about 8:30 a.m. today to make an arrest.
The vehicle of the person to be arrested on the felony warrant was parked near the trailer.
As deputies scouted the area to be sure it was safe to make the arrest, and before they were able to see into the trailer home, they heard a gunshot in the vicinity. Immediately afterward, they heard a bullet hitting a wooden surface near them, according to Deputy Michelle Reid, who was one of the two officers at the scene.
Reid and the other officer pulled back and secured the area, setting up a perimeter in an attempt to make sure the shooter and anyone else who may have been in the trailer didn’t leave while they called for backup.
A Michigan State Police tactical team was called from around the state, including members of a bomb squad, a negotiator, a sniper, and a drone pilot. The first tactical team members arrived within an hour, Reid said.
About 20 police and emergency vehicles commandeered the parking lot of the business, which became the staging area for the police response.
Police sent a signal to confirm the location of the suspect’s cell phone, which was discovered to be in the Greenbush Township area, about 45 minutes south of the trailer home.
Though in some states a warrant is required for police to obtain cell phone location information, Michigan doesn’t require police to obtain permission for location tracking, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
The suspect, whom police did not publicly identify, was located and arrested in Greenbush Township.
Tactical team members entered the trailer home about 2 p.m. today. Nobody was in the building, although the suspect’s car was still parked nearby, Kieliszewski said.
Prior to the entry, police detained one subject who may have been in the trailer, Reid said. Police also did not identify that person.
Once the trailer was confirmed by the MSP tactical team to be empty, the investigation was turned back over to the Alpena County Sheriff’s Office.
As of early this evening, deputies were executing a search warrant in the trailer, outbuildings, and several vehicles nearby.
Kieliszewski was not able to give details about the intended object of their search.
The investigation will take some time as deputies attempt to learn who fired the shot and why, and how the alleged shooter was able to leave the area, Kieliszewski said.
A VIOLENT YEAR
The incident marks the third major gunfire incident of the year in the Alpena area, where such violence is typically rare.
Elifonso “Eli” Mata II, 26, fatally shot 21-year-old Meagan Soik at a house on Ford Avenue the evening of Oct. 15, according to police. Mata then turned the weapon on himself, police said.
In August, an apparent murder-suicide took the lives of brothers James Polluch and former Alpena Municipal Council member Michael Polluch. Their bodies were found at the scene of a fire in a barn on Long Lake Road in Alpena Township on Aug. 13.
Michigan State Police reported that James Polluch fatally shot Michael Polluch and then himself, motivated by a lengthy disagreement between the brothers.