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What's the weather for today?
Tonight: Partly to mostly cloudy with high clouds and lows in the upper 40s to low 50s and 52° in Detroit. Winds: ENE 5-10 mph
Friday: Mostly sunny and warmer with highs in the low 80s, including 83° in Detroit. Winds: SSW 5-10 mph.
The top stories to know about
Church leaders reflect on deadly attack in Grand Blanc Township, community support
It’s been four days since a man drove his pickup truck into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township before shooting people inside and setting the building on fire.
Four innocent lives were lost, and 10 other people were injured.
Neighbors of all faiths have been coming together this week to wrap their arms around each other. There have been several prayer services and fundraising efforts this week.
As our Mike Duffy was talking to people who live in the area and watched the first responders come and leave with stretchers, I asked them questions about their community. One of the things that struck him was how unfamiliar some people were with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
So for the first time, Duffy sat down with church leaders for a sincere heart-to-heart conversation about the recent tragedy. They shared what they want the community to know about their church and where we all go from here.
“I have been overwhelmed with the expressions of love and support from the community doing everything imaginable, using creative ways to reach out and show their love and support,” said Becky Burt, president of the Church of Jesus Christ.
Church elder Brent B. Ward said the wide outreach has brought light to the community.
“The reach and the impact of this event that is so tragic is bringing about a light and a goodness in our community. And I’m realizing our community in the world we live in is much bigger than a small little geographic place,” Ward said.
Mike asked what they would say to the community who might be unfamiliar with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“The first thing that comes to mind is just that we are normal, everyday individuals that take our kids to school, that take them to sports practice,” Burt said. “And we have a belief system that we adhere to because it strengthens us and brings us closer to Christ.”
Take an inside look of Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Centennial Park as it nears completion
The community will soon have its first chance to visit Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Centennial Park, a massive new public space west of downtown Detroit along the riverfront that opens to the public later this month.
On Wednesday, we took a tour of the space as it nears completion.
The 22-acre park has been seven years in the making and features four unique sections.
"It's something truly one of a kind, nothing like it in our entire region," said Ryan Sullivan, CEO of the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy. "I think everyone's going to be blown away by what they see here."
The park opens Oct. 25 and includes the Delta Dental Play Garden with slides and a splash pad area, the Huron-Clinton Metroparks Water Garden, the DTE Foundation Summit for events like movie nights or winter activities like sledding and the William Davidson Sport House.
The Sport House represents a partnership with the Pistons, bringing two full-sized basketball courts and a pavilion to the park.
"Some people want to be really active and basketball and others just want to relax and have a picnic or read a book. Everybody can do that in one trip here to the park," Sullivan said.
Beyond providing more outdoor recreation opportunities, Sullivan says the park will help bridge the city together.
"Residents of southwest Detroit, Corktown, Mexicantown will be able to get on the Southwest Greenway and go all the way over to the east side, get onto Belle Isle, go up the Dequindre Cut to Eastern Market," Sullivan said. "We have never had the kind of pedestrian connectivity that we're going to have once this park opens."
Wyandotte police deploy new device to help safely end high-speed chases
Wyandotte police officers are now equipped with a new tool designed to bring dangerous police chases to a safe stop. The device, called the Grappler, makes Wyandotte the second police agency in Michigan to add this technology to its arsenal.
The Grappler works by deploying a net that wraps around a fleeing vehicle's rear tire, causing it to lock up on the suspension components and bring the car to a controlled stop. Officers from several agencies trained with the device Wednesday in Wyandotte.
"When the net's deployed, a police officer will drive that net into a rotating rear tire, and the tire brings the net up and over and gets locked up on the suspension components," said Leonard Stock, the device's inventor.
Stock, a roofer by trade, came up with the idea in 2010 after watching a police chase on television.
"I just woke up suddenly in the middle of the night and this idea hit me," Stock said.
Though it wasn't easy turning his middle-of-the-night inspiration into reality, Stock's persistence paid off. Today, the Grappler is used by more than 100 police departments across the country.
"I always thought that if I kept going, at some point it would get used and somebody's life could possibly get saved or free from injury, just an innocent motorist or pedestrian," Stock said.
The life-saving potential was demonstrated several weeks ago in Livonia, where police used a Grappler to stop a drunk driver from speeding away. Livonia was the first department in Michigan to deploy the technology.
Wyandotte Police Officer Shane O'Meara, who participated in Wednesday's training, welcomed the new tool.
"Police chases aren't going to stop, people are going to keep running from us, and this is a way to make them safer and stop them before they start getting to those dangerous speeds," O'Meara said.
