KALAMAZOO, MI — Police reports and recordings of
a sometimes tense 40-minute encounter with a belligerent, rifle-toting man offers insight into how officers tried to defuse a volatile situation without infringing on his right to openly carry the gun on a city street.
On May 4, Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety officers responded to multiple reports of a man, possibly intoxicated, carrying a rifle along East Cork Street in the city's Milwood neighborhood. Joseph Houseman, 63, was eventually persuaded to hand over the gun, which was returned to him the next day.
Police considered but ultimately decided against seeking a misdemeanor charge of brandishing a firearm.
It is
legal to openly carry a gun in Michigan but illegal to brandish one, which KDPS Assistant Chief Donald Webster described as essentially “waving or displaying the firearm in a threatening manner.”
Police reports and recordings from dash-mounted cameras in patrol cars and body microphones on officers, obtained by the Kalamazoo Gazette through the Michigan Freedom of Information Act, reveal how officers deliberated over how to enforce the law and protect public safety while respecting the man’s right to bear arms.
'Why don't you shoot me?'
Around 4 p.m. on Sunday, May 4, Kalamazoo Public Safety dispatchers begin getting calls from the public about a man carrying a rifle outside Cork Street Coin and Laundry, 823 E. Cork Street, on the city's southeast side.
The first caller reports seeing a "Caucasian man with white hair and pajama pants walking with what looks like and AK-47."
A second caller says he saw an older man walking down the street with what looked to be an assault rifle, although he admits it could also be a pellet or BB gun. He says the man had the gun up by his shoulder and "didn't look dangerous or nothing." The dispatcher asks if the gun is in the man's hands, to which the caller replies it is not. "He's an elderly man and I just want to make sure everything's all right," he says.
A third caller gives police more cause for alarm. "There's an older gentleman carrying what looks like a large semi-automatic rifle through the streets," the male caller says. "He does appear to be intoxicated; he's stumbling around a little bit and kind of bumping into some stuff."
KDPS Sgt. Sean Gordon is the first officer to arrive. From the dash cam footage from his patrol car, his vehicle can be seen pulling into the Cork Street Laundry at 4:09 p.m. as Houseman walks east on the sidewalk along Cork Street. Houseman crosses the street diagonally toward the Auto Zone parking lot, and Gordon engages him in conversation.
Gordon:
Hey partner, how you doing? Can you set that down real quick and talk to me?
Houseman:
I'm not setting it down.
Gordon:
Well you can't cross the street like that.
Houseman:
Am I being detained?
Gordon:
Yes, you are being detained right now. You crossed the street illegally. Place the weapon down on the ground please.
Houseman:
I will not.
Gordon radios that it appears the man will not drop his rifle.
Gordon:
"Look, you crossed the street illegally; I just want to talk to you. I just want to talk to you. You're walking around here scaring people, man.
A second Public Safety vehicle arrives just after 4:11 p.m. About a minute later, Gordon asks Houseman for his name. Houseman says he is "Joe Schmoe."
"Based on training and experience I know that this is a euphemism used as an alias and knew it was not correct," Gordon would later write in his report.
Houseman:
I am free to go?
Gordon:
"No, you're not free to go. Right now you're committing a crime of resisting and obstructing (for failing to identify himself after being stopped for jaywalking).
Now you've stepped up to a misdemeanor crime.
Houseman:
Why don't you (expletive) shoot me?
Gordon:
I don't want to shoot you; I'm not here to do that.
As the interaction continues, Houseman talks of a coming revolution, and calls police officers "gang members" with a "history of violence." While the audio is scattered -- Houseman was across the street from Gordon and it was a somewhat windy day -- Houseman can also be seen grabbing his genitals and making lewd gestures toward Gordon.
"
