Two investigations, one criminal and one internal, are now under way into the assault of Mike Karpovich at the hands of Detroit Police Commander Timothy Leach.
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Leach has been on suspension and has been demoted effective immediately after the incident at the Ottava Via Bar on Michigan Avenue the afternoon of the St. Patty’s Day Parade 9 days ago.
Troy Karpovich is the guardian over his brother Mike who remains on life support at Detroit Receiving Hospital. Doctors there are not giving a good prognosis.
“Generally those patients don’t go back to where they were as far as function. But it can vary from a little deficiency to no function whatsoever,” Troy says to 7 Investigator Jim Kiertzner.
While some accounts say this started as an unruly customer inside the bar, one of the witnesses tells us the victim was not fighting with the bouncer.
“Why are you pushing me for? You know? That was the look that was on his face. And then the guy grabbed him by his shirt underneath his chin and put more power into the push knocking him off his feet backwards and his head crashing into the ground. And everybody felt it. You could feel it through your feet.”
This witness went to police the next day and says he got the runaround, so he does not want us to use his name.
He has since learned the bouncer behind the assault is Detroit Police Commander Tim Leach.
“I was mortified at what happened. When I walked out of the back this guy was standing with three other individuals that worked there, probably security guards as well, like it was nothing. This guy is a commander of a unit. These people are supposed to have compassion for one another,” he said in a telephone interview with 7 Action News.
Detroit Police Chief James Craig at a news conference said this was initially reported not as an assault but a slip and fall.
“It was not a slip and fall. I saw it with my own eyes take place from probably 10 feet away,” said the eyewitness.
Chief Craig says he has watched surveillance video from the bar and there’s no doubt what happened.
“It was a member of this department that was seen in a video using force.”
The Chief says Commander Leach did not report the use of force.
The Chief also confirming another Detroit Police Detective who works under Commander Leach was also working at the bar. But the Chief says it is not yet clear where that Detective was during the assault.
We’ve been told by witnesses 5 calls were made to 911 but 2 responding officers were told at the bar this was only a slip and fall.
7 Investigator Jim Kiertzner had this exchange with Chief Craig at the news conference,
Kiertzner Question: Leach didn’t step forward and identify himself to these two responding officers and say, I’m Commander Leach, I was involved, he didn’t come clean at that moment, and you’re saying this isn’t a cover-up?
Chief Craig: I’m telling you that we’re conducting an investigation. The commander has been suspended because of his inaction.
Troy Karpovich says, “It doesn’t look good from where I sit.”
Kiertzner asks, “And you have a brother upstairs fighting for his life?”
Karpovich answers, “The most important thing is his health. We really want to know what happened, who’s responsible.”
The ongoing investigations involve Detroit Police, Michigan State Police, the FBI and the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office.
