Police Chased the Wrong Man, Then Shot Him and Watched as He Bled Out - Lemmy.World
cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/57798
[https://news.abolish.capital/post/57798] > In the early hours of January 6,
2026, two 911 callers near Ypsilanti, Michigan, reported a white van driving
erratically. > > Within an hour, police had found a white van, crashed into it
twice on purpose, and fired 27 shots at the driver while the vehicle lay on its
side, burning. At least eightcops watched as 34-year old Navy veteran John
Andrew Jenuwine bled out and died inside. > > Of several inconsistencies in the
police response, one stood out: The only physical description provided to the
dispatcher was that “two Black guys” were driving the van, and a caller said
they’d brandished a handgun at his wife. Jenuwine was white, driving alone, and
unarmed. > > That’s not what police told Jenuwine’s parents when they contacted
them the following evening, 17 hours after killing their son. > > “We were told
that there was an exchange of gunfire, and that John was killed,” John’s father,
Larry Jenuwine, told The Intercept. “Call it naïveté or whatever you want to
call it, but our first thoughts were, ‘Oh my God, what did he do, why did he
cause this?’” > > On the phone with Larry and Kelly, John’s mother, a deputy
with the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office claimed their recently deceased son
had a gun. But Jenuwine, an industrial field engineer traveling to repair
million-dollar lasers, just had his work equipment; no gun was ever found in his
van. And the officers who caused two intentional collisions appear to have
violated their own policies, which the department updated after the police
killing of George Floyd — testing the limits of post-2020 police reforms. > > >
“We were told that there was an exchange of gunfire, and that John was killed.
Come to find out, he didn’t do anything to cause any of this.” > > The Jenuwine
family is now suing Washtenaw County and eight sheriff’s deputies who responded
to the case for wrongful death; for violating John’s constitutional rights to
protection under the law, and against unreasonable searches and seizures; and
for gross negligence and willful misconduct, including improper use of deadly
force. The suit seeks to hold the county responsible for what it calls the
sheriff’s failures to train officers and enforce its policies. > > “Come to find
out, he didn’t do anything to cause any of this,” Larry said. “He was not the
guy that they were supposed to be chasing.” > > Less than 15 minutes elapsed
between the time Washtenaw County Sheriff’s deputies incorrectly identified
Jenuwine’s van and when they started shooting. Officers fired their first shots
seconds after causing Jenuwine’s vehicle to flip on its side and catch fire. > >
Only seven out of the 27 shots fired hit Jenuwine. None of them alone was
responsible for killing him, according to an independent autopsy obtained by
Jenuwine’s family and described by their attorneys in a press conference last
week, which found he bled out and died over time. While Jenuwine struggled and
died, dashcam footage shared with The Intercept recorded officers outside
discussing whether any of the shots had hit him. > > After several minutes had
passed, one officer said over the radio, “He’s kicking around inside the vehicle
right now.” None of them called for emergency services. > > According to the
footage, an edited version of which was viewed by The Intercept, Jenuwine lay
dying in the van for at least five minutes. > > “The cruelty of it, I suppose,
is what strikes me the most,” said Maura Battersby, one of the attorneys
representing the family. “If aid had been rendered, he may have survived this.”
> > Of the four deputies attorneys said fired shots, two names have been
publicly released: Jacob Gombos and Jonathan Early. Both received awards in 2024
for distinguished service; Gombos got the department’s Life Saving Award. > > >
“If aid had been rendered, he may have survived this.” > > The sheriff’s office
placed Gombos, Earley, and the other deputies involved on paid administrative
leave pending an investigation by Michigan State Police, which was completed
last month and is now pending review by the Michigan attorney general. The state
AG will decide whether to bring criminal charges against any of the officers in
the case. > > A spokesperson for the Michigan State Police confirmed that their
investigation is closed and referred questions to the attorney general’s office,
which did not respond to a request for comment. Spokespeople for the Washtenaw
County Sheriff’s Office and the Ypsilanti Police Department did not respond to
requests for comment. > > > One of the officers who shot at Jenuwine had
received the department’s Life Saving Award. > > The case has brought renewed
scrutiny to the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office, which is currently facing
dual lawsuits from whistleblowers
[https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2026/06/washtenaw-county-sheriff-hit-with-second-whistleblower-lawsuit-in-two-days.html]
who claimed the department hired unqualified
[https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2026/06/ex-washtenaw-sheriffs-employee-sues-alleging-retaliation-over-hiring-concerns.html]
officers and fired them in retaliation for reporting it. Both plaintiffs are
former office staff who said they were fired after raising concerns that Sheriff
Alyshia Dyer and other staff pushed them to hire candidates who had lied about
their qualifications and in one case had an “extensive” criminal history.
Another sheriff’s deputy resigned in March
[https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2026/05/washtenaw-county-police-sergeant-reportedly-had-sex-with-subordinate-while-on-duty.html]
while under investigation for allegedly having a sexual relationship with a
subordinate officer. Dyer herself was also independently investigated last year
after a partially burned cannabis cigarette was found in her county-issued
vehicle. (She denied it was hers, and an independent report could not determine
whether the joint belonged to Dyer.) > > “It seems like every day we hear
something about the Washtenaw Sheriff’s department,” Kelly Jenuwine told The
Intercept. “They are in the news constantly, and it’s not for a good reason.” >
> Jenuwine’s killing raises a new round of questions about the efficacy of
police reform. In 2024, Michigan implemented new statewide guidelines
restricting vehicle pursuits to “protect the lives of innocent bystanders.”
Following the police killing of George Floyd in 2020, the Washtenaw County
Sheriff’s office released a memo
[https://www.washtenaw.org/1543/Policy-Procedures#docaccess-09c414bcabe176acf534d53ba58732abcbb83d632658b15fd314fc4c3a8ed818]
outlining how its policies aligned with a series of proposed reforms pushed by
activists
[https://theintercept.com/2016/09/21/here-are-eight-policies-that-can-prevent-police-killings/]
against police violence that grew out of 2014 protests in Ferguson, Missouri.
And the sheriff’s office adopted a new use of force policy in 2022, which
classifies intentional vehicle collisions — known as a “PIT” maneuver, a
precision immobilization technique — as deadly force. > > “That’s something
you’re trained not to do,” said Todd Flood, the lead attorney on the Jenuwines’
case. > >
[https://theintercept.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/GettyImages-1228676520.jpg?w=440&h=440&crop=1]
> > Related > ------- > > ### Most Cops Involved in High-Profile Killings Since
2014 Kept Their Police Licenses
[https://theintercept.com/2023/09/16/police-decertification-license/] > > The
new policy also guides officers to “seek voluntary compliance and operate with
minimal reliance on the use of force,” using techniques in crisis intervention
and “rapport-building communication,” and try to de-escalate, even after using
force. It requires a mandatory medical evaluation when deadly force is applied,
if an officer observes an injury, or if they believe one has occurred; and it
ties the degree of appropriate force to how certain they are that the subject
committed a crime. The policy states: “Sheriff’s Office employees shall never
employ excessive force.” > > Officers did not verbally engage with Jenuwine a
single time, Battersby told The Intercept. > > “I would have expected them to be
calling out over the loudspeaker,” Battersby said. “There were many instances in
which they were in close proximity to him, and it doesn’t appear that they did
that.” > > At a press conference after the shooting, the Washtenaw County
Sheriff’s Office played a dashcam video that showed Jenuwine reversing his van
and driving on the wrong side of the road. Before the sheriffs hit Jenuwine’s
van in the first PIT maneuver, the dashcam video cuts ahead, with the video
timestamp jumping forward 30 seconds. > > The Jenuwines said what they describe
as John’s “execution” changed the way they look at law enforcement after having
considered themselves generally supportive of police. “I want the people that
executed my son to never have the opportunity to work in law enforcement again,”
said Kelly. > > “They ran around with those guns like they were playing video
games, guns held sideways,” Larry said, referring to the dashcam footage. “I’m
still struggling with this and I anticipate that’s going to be a continuing
struggle.” > > Despite believing the vast majority of police were “good, honest,
hard-working people,” he said, “I don’t believe these guys that were involved in
this shooting were. And that’s the kind of people we need to get out of that
system.” > > “We want to make sure that the people involved in this, in John’s
death, are held accountable,” Larry said. “We’re hoping that there will be
criminal charges as well, but we can’t count on that.” > > Jenuwine liked to
spend his time outdoors fishing and hunting with his family, his parents told
The Intercept. He was on his high school football team, spent six years in the
Navy, and was a member of a Detroit motorcycle club. When he was growing up, he
and Larry worked on cars and tractors together. > > On what would have been
Jenuwine’s 35th birthday last month, his parents said they spent the evening
crying over a birthday cake. > > “Those officers get to go home to their
families every night,” Kelly said. “What Larry and I get, we get a box of ashes
and a lock of my son’s hair.” > > The post Police Chased the Wrong Man, Then
Shot Him and Watched as He Bled Out
[https://theintercept.com/2026/06/18/police-killing-michigan-john-jenuwine/]
appeared first on The Intercept [https://theintercept.com/]. > > — > > From The
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Innerworld
Thom Aster
Regina Mühlich ✅, Datenschutz
Whistleblowing Professor