Several dozen demonstrators gathered Tuesday in a peaceful protest of the shooting of 20-year-old Terrance Kellom by federal agent Mitchell Quinn, who was suspended by the Detroit Police Department in 2008 amid allegations that he held a gun to his ex-wife’s head. (Photo by @JoelReinstein via Twitter)
A federal agent who pumped multiple bullets into a 20-year-old Detroit man Monday was suspended as a Detroit police officer in 2008 after he was criminally charged in a domestic violence incident after he allegedly pulled a gun on his ex-wife, according to news reports.
The agent, identified as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Officer Mitchell Quinn, shot a hammer-wielding suspect during a raid Monday in a case that is being closely watched nationally amid racial unrest in Baltimore, MD, and elsewhere in the country.
An autopsy showed Terrance Kellom, was shot multiple times by Quinn, who was working on a fugitive apprehension task force. Detroit Police Chief James Craig said Monday that Kellom was advancing on Quinn armed with a hammer – an assertion the victim’s father denies – and the agent “responded to overcome the suspect’s actions and used deadly force.”
The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press report that Quinn, 39, was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon after he allegedly held a gun to the head of his wife, also Detroit police officer at the time. The charges were dismissed when a judge ruled there wasn’t enough evidence to take the case to trial, and the two have since divorced.
The woman, who spoke to The Detroit News on the condition of anonymity to protect her son, said she doesn’t have details about what happened during the raid and hasn’t discussed it with her ex-husband.
“I just hope that, for everybody, justice can be had and that everybody heals,” she said. “It’s traumatic on both sides.”
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Several dozen protesters gathered outside the house where Terrance Kellom was killed Monday. The demonstration was a sharp contrast to rioting in Baltimore, MD, over the death of Freddie Gray while in police custody.
“We haven’t had one bottle thrown,” said Bobbie Davis, a spokesman for the Franklin Park Neighborhood Association, according to a report in The Detroit News.”We’re standing behind (the Detroit Police Department). We have some good police officers here. We’re not going to burn down our city; we’re going to build up our city. We’re going to show we’re not savages.
“But we’re going to demand answers,” Davis said. “Let things be handled by the Justice Department.”
U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said her office, along with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, Detroit Police and the Michigan State Police, are investigating.
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According to Board of Police Commissioners meeting minutes, Quinn’s wife said he held his department-issued handgun to her head as the two argued over emails. When she attempted a 911 call on her cellular phone, Quinn grabbed and broke it, according to the minutes, and then threw his gun against the wall.
The couple’s son “told the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office that he observed his father point a gun at his mother and push her down,” the minutes show.
Quinn joined ICE and was assigned to the Detroit Fugitive Apprehension Team in September 2008, just six months after the charges were dismissed.
It was in that capacity that he shot Kellom Monday. ICE had declined to comment on the situation, other than to say in a statement issued earlier this week that the decorated 12-year veteran of the Detroit Police Department had “no history of adverse personnel actions,” the two newspapers said.
Quinn’s law enforcement career also includes a failed run for Wayne County sheriff in 2004, when he finished last among eight candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for the office.