"You never, as they say, expect it to happen in your neighborhood. Things like that just don't happen in our neighborhood in Delta township."
That's Michael Thomsen talking about the dozens of police officers he saw on his street searching for a suspect that fled police early Sunday morning. The suspect, identified as David Sprague, carjacked a pickup truck near the Lansing mall, and eventually fled on foot after a short pursuit.
"At that point when the foot pursuit began, it was very short," describes Eaton Country Sheriff Tom Reich, "the individual had a gun pointed to his head. Our deputies attempted to negotiate with the individual, [it failed], the suspect did take off again. The suspect did fire a round, the deputies did back off at that point."
Police continued the search, and ultimately found Sprague in a shed. While police attempted to negotiate with him again, the suspect shot himself in the head.
"He was transported to the hospital by Delta fire EMS, where the last I knew he was still alive," says Sheriff Reich.
Neighbors say the search was terrifying.
"We heard the helicopter over in the early morning hours, finally at 6, you know, we could see the spotlight, we realized they were looking for somebody," says Ken Marrison, who lives in the neighborhood.
Police started working their way up streets near Sharp park with canines, helicopters, and dozens of officers, eventually finding Sprague just after nine AM. Sheriff Reich says the priority was to make sure people were safe:
"Our main concern was the neighborhoods, if he had kicked in a door or something the safety of our people is very important to us so that was number one. And we got enough people out here to make that happen, to make our community safe again."
