MSP: Trooper shoots, kills Oceana Co. man after bomb claim
OTTO TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — Troopers say a man who claimed to have a bomb, prompting a standoff near the Oceana-Muskegon county line Saturday afternoon and evening, is dead.
A member of the Michigan State Police Emergency Support Team shot and killed the 44-year-old Oceana County man after a “perceived threat,” according to MSP.
A News 8 crew on scene heard a single shot around 7:45 p.m.
Neighbors say the standoff began around 3:30 p.m.
According to MSP, a man on the side of the road said he had a bomb strapped to his body. Troopers say they saw “an unknown device with wires attached to it” on the man.
“He made the statement he was going to kill everyone,” MSP Lt. Michelle Robinson said.
Police closed off Nichols Road and Skeels Road, in the area of Otto Township and Blue Lake Township, while state police troopers — including the MSP Bomb Squad — responded.
Firefighters and an ambulance waited on standby.
“EST negotiators attempted to negotiate with the man for several hours,” Robinson said. “During the negotiations, there was a perceived threat from him, at which point a shot was fired by an EST member that struck the man.”
Neighbor Diana Wishman told News 8 she looked and outside and saw the man in the ditch.
“I was just sitting there reading, and I heard something,” she said. “I got up and there were cars all over the place. He was in the ditch.”
That, according to Wishman, is where police encountered him. She said he was yelling.
“That he had a bomb … and he was going to blow them up,” she said.
Wishman and other neighbors were evacuated from their homes, she said.
State police say they still haven’t determined whether the device was a working bomb.
The case remains under investigation.
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