It was a dangerously wild scene that unfolded late Wednesday morning on Jefferson Avenue near downtown Detroit as witnesses saw Detroit Police trying to calm an erratic man down before they say he ran away from officers and then opened fire on them.
Detroit Police officers exchanged gunfire with the 30-year-old man who was shot by police in his legs.
It all began when someone at the Detroit Regency Hotel called 911 on the man because he was armed and behaving erratically.
When officers arrived, the man was leaving the gas station across the street from the hotel where workers were also struck by his odd behavior. Tarek Saad, owner of the gas station, said the man propped open the front door to their store with a garbage can and said something about his life being on the line.
The man left the store area of the gas station and, moments later, police can be seen on surveillance video arriving and trying to talk to him, but the man refuses to comply.
As he's walking away from an officer, the man walks into a moving vehicle, but he doesn't appear to be injured and he continues to move away from officers that were on foot and in a scout car.
The man ran a block east to Jefferson and Dubois where police say he opened fire on officers and they returned fire, striking him.
The man was rushed to the hospital and when his family arrived at the scene, they told investigators that he has a mental illness and that they've struggled to get him help.
Action News learned that the man was charged with Open Murder in 2014, but the case was dismissed due to insufficient evidence.
Police say he has a criminal history that includes armed robbery and narcotics.
