Wayne police will not be charged for fatally shooting a suicidal man. Here's why

Two Wayne police officers will not be charged for fatally shooting a mentally ill man who had called 911 to report that he had attempted suicide, but then wound up dead after officers showed up at his home and opened fire because he refused to drop a knife, the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office announced Wednesday.

According to the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office, the man had stabbed himself more than 50 times while his child was home sleeping, and refused to obey officers' commands when they showed up at his home, where they found him shirtless and with a knife in his hand. They asked him repeatedly to drop it, the prosecutor's office said, but he refused, so the officers took action: First they tried to Tase him, but that didn't work, so one officer opened fire, killing 40-year-old John Zook Jr. who fell to the floor, still holding his knife.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said that the officers were justified in their actions, concluding they were acting in self-defense the day they encountered Zook in his apartment this past spring. In announcing her decision Wednesday not to charge the officers, Worthy, who relied in part on police body cam video to investigate the case, offered this detailed account of what happened that day:

On June 18 at about 2:35 p.m., Wayne police officers responded to an apartment building in the 35000 block of West Michigan Avenue for a reported attempted suicide. Zook, who lived there, had reported that he just tried to kill himself by cutting himself all over with a knife and said that his 4-year-old child was in the apartment with him.

Zook told police that he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, but that he was not on medication because he had stopped taking it some time ago.

The two first responding officers had body cameras on, which according to Worthy, captured this encounter:

The two officers knocked on the door. When Zook opened it, he was holding a knife in his right hand with the blade facing downward.

He was shirtless, and appeared to be standing about six to eight feet away from the officers. Numerous cut wounds were visible on his torso.

One officer pointed a Taser at Zook, while the other had his gun. Both officers repeatedly told Zook to drop his knife, though he just paced back and forth between the door entrance and the kitchen — never dropping the knife.

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After 15 seconds of commands, one officer warned Zook he would be "Tased," though he still didn't drop the knife. Instead, he walked toward the officers, which prompted one officer to fire his Taser. But it didn't take effect. Zook was standing a short distance away.

Within seconds, the second officer drew his Taser while pointing his gun at Zook, who came closer to the officers as they stood in a hallway. That officer then fired both his Taser and gun simultaneously at Zook, who was shot four times and fell into the hallway — the knife still in his right hand.

The officers immediately called for medical assistance. Zook died shortly after. He had at least 54 stab wounds to his neck, chest and abdomen.

According to police, the child slept through the entire event and officers quickly removed the child from the apartment unharmed.

"In Michigan, police officers have the same right to self-defense and defense of others as any other person," the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

According to Worthy, Michigan's legal standard for using deadly force in self-defense or defense of others looks at whether the person using the force is reasonably in fear of imminent death or great bodily harm to them or someone else.

The officers, she concluded, met this legal standard.

"At the time officers used force they objectively knew that Mr. Zook was armed with a knife, which would be legally considered a dangerous weapon. Mr. Zook was apparently actively suffering a mental health crisis, was not acting rationally, and just attempted to kill himself," the statement reads. "He was not responding to commands while standing armed a very short distance from the officers. They also knew that Mr. Zook’s young child was present in the apartment with him."

Worthy also held that the officers did not use deadly force until Zook posed an imminent threat to their safety when he came toward them and the Taser was not successful in disarming him.

Worthy is not naming the officers because, her office explained, it does not name individuals who have not been charged.

Contact Tresa Baldas: [email protected]