Attorney calls for transparency in Shiawassee shooting
SHIAWASSEE COUNTY, Mich. (WLNS) – An incident earlier this month is still raising questions in Shiawassee County after a traffic stop turned into a deputy-involved shooting, where 43-year-old Daniel Silver was killed.
Calls for transparency are getting louder by the day following the incident on April 13. According to Silver’s family attorney, Gary Felty, it’s about time things came to light.
“To date, we have sent Freedom of Information Act requests to the county, the state police and the Durand Police Department, each entity has asked for an extension,” he said.
Additional information for much of the Durand community. More than two weeks ago, on the 700 block of Oak Street in Durand, the sheriff’s office was helping city officers arrest Silver on a felony warrant.
According to the Shiawassee County Sheriff’s Office, that’s when a deputy “discharged his weapon” and Silver died.
“He was well-known to the community and everybody. He was born and raised here,” Mandi Kissane said in early April at a car wash benefit for the family, and is one of Silver’s friends. “What happened was a tragedy, it shouldn’t have happened the way it did.”
Felty said his team has interviewed different witnesses to the shooting where he claimed that Silver’s life was unjustly taken and added that he’s looking for concrete info from the sheriff’s department.
“We would love to have any of the three perhaps four governmental entities that are involved in investigating this to disclose some information and shed some light on what’s going on. It’s about transparency. And it does not seem that there is transparency in this case,” he said.
The attorney added that Silver’s family is looking at its legal options.
“We’re not at the immediate stage of filing at the moment but it is something that we do anticipate doing in the very near future,” he said.
6 News asked for more details from Shiawassee County officials and they said that they are unable to discuss them. Instead, the sheriff’s office deferred 6 News to the Michigan State Police who is handling the investigation.
MSP said the investigation is still ongoing.
When 6 News inquired about body-cam video of the situation, MSP added that neither the Shiawassee County Sheriff’s Office nor the Durand Police Department is equipped with body-cams and the patrol cars were not in proximity of the incident.
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