Prosecutors have charged a 25-year-old man with murdering a Detroit police officer, but investigators believe at least one other person was involved, The Detroit News has learned.

Jason Gibson was arraigned Tuesday at his bedside in St. John Hospital on charges that he gunned down Officer Brian Huff inside a vacant eastside duplex around 3:30 a.m. May 3. Gibson, who has a history of combating police, faces 18 separate charges, including first-degree murder. He was denied bond.

Sources close to the case told The News that police believe at least one other man was inside the dwelling when the shooting occurred. After Gibson was shot by officers and handcuffed, a police dog tracked a second man from the duplex, sources said.

Hours later, police were dispatched to the home of a 32-year-old Detroit man in connection with the case. He was arrested the day of the shooting on outstanding traffic warrants, released, and then arrested again Tuesday for more outstanding traffic warrants, Wayne County Jail employees said.

The second suspect has not been charged in the shooting, and it is not clear whether he, or someone else, was tracked by the police dog the morning of the shooting. Also unclear is whether investigators believe the second man fired any shots, witnessed the slaying before running away, or was otherwise involved.

Investigators continue to pore over conflicting reports about what happened the morning of the shooting. Police officials originally said Gibson shot four officers in addition to Huff. However, Gibson was only charged Tuesday with shooting three of the officers, which calls into question who shot the fourth, Officer Joseph D’Angelo, who was struck in the leg.

In the shootings of the other three officers, Gibson was charged with assault with intent to murder, and assaulting and resisting a police officer causing serious impairment. But for D’Angelo’s shooting, Gibson only was charged with assaulting and resisting.

Gibson also was charged with home invasion, possession of marijuana, and gun crimes. He was charged as a four-time habitual offender.

When Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy was asked during a press conference Tuesday if Gibson was the only suspect in the shooting, she answered, “No comment.”

Detroit Police Assistant Chief Ralph Godbee also declined comment about the second suspect, citing an open investigation.

Godbee said he is not ruling out the possibility that D’Angelo was hit by “friendly fire,” although he said the initial investigation does not suggest it.

“We have no reason to believe based on the evidence that there was friendly fire,” Godbee said. “However, we will reserve judgment until the investigation is complete.”

‘We’ve got an officer down’

TV station Fox 2 (WJBK) Detroit posted the dispatch audio on its website on May 4. In the recording, a voice Fox 2 identified as Huff’s is heard telling the operator, “We’re still trying to secure and gain entry (to the duplex).”

An undisclosed time later, another officer is heard screaming that police officers had been shot.

“We’ve got one, two down out front,” the officer yells. “We have another officer at the scene that’s also hit. We need another unit.”

When the dispatcher replied that he would send another unit, the officer said, “We’ve got to make entry. We’ve got an officer down and we need to get inside to get this guy.”

The dispatcher asked if the officer was transporting the shooting victim. The officer said, “Negative. It’s one of the B units. B-2.”

The dispatcher then asked: “Do we have a description of the perpetrators?”

“He’s still in the house,” the officer answered. “We’ve got one down and we got someone else armed. We got ‘em, we got ‘em.”

The dispatcher asked whether there was only one suspect in the house.

“He’s outside by himself,” the officer responded. “We haven’t cleared the house yet.”

The officer told the dispatcher that Huff had been shot in the arm and face.

Officials say Huff died about 3:30 a.m., after he and at least two other units from the Eastern District responded to the 911 call. Eastern District Cmdr. Steve Dolunt said a rookie unit initially was dispatched, but that Huff and his partner likely rushed to the scene so they could lead the less-experienced officers into a potentially dangerous situation.

When Huff ventured into the duplex, Gibson reportedly opened fire with a .45-caliber handgun, hitting the 12-year veteran three times in the face and once in the shoulder, Detroit Police Chief Warren Evans said.

After shooting Huff four times, Gibson allegedly fired at least three more rounds, wounding officers John Dunlap, Kasper Harrison and Steven Schram.

A bullet grazed Dunlap’s chin while he stood on the sidewalk in front of the duplex. Police later found more than 40 spent shell casings on the ground nearby, indicating the injured officers fired back, sources said.

Gibson was shot once in the buttocks, although it’s not clear which officer shot him. Evans said he was captured as he hid in the duplex’s backyard.

At least one other suspect

After police subdued Gibson, he was handcuffed to a fence, according to News sources. A gun was found on the grass near him when secondary units responded to the call that officers were down. The pistol’s serial number had been filed off, sources said.

“The police handcuffed (Gibson) to my back fence,” said Danielle Jameson, who said she called 911 after the original gunshots woke her up. “He said, ‘I can’t walk,’ and the police said, ‘Yeah, you can.’ They were being awfully nice to him, considering that he’d just shot a bunch of officers.”

With Gibson in custody, investigators searched for at least one other suspect, sources told The News. Police on the scene believed someone may have escaped the duplex through an open second-story window.

A K9 unit from the Grosse Pointe Police Department was brought in to help with the search. The dog picked up a trail at the duplex, sources said, but lost the scent after two blocks.

Several hours after the shooting, James Gonzalez, chief of the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office’s Special Operations Division, told officers that a 32-year-old Detroit man was wanted in connection with Huff’s death, sources said.

A cruiser was dispatched to the man’s home on Somerset; police arrested him up as he drove nearby.

Earlier that day, officers had been sent to one of Gibson’s previous addresses, also on Somerset, down the block from where the second suspect lives.

After Gibson was sent to St. John Hospital, Jameson’s brother, a Detroit Police officer assigned to the Eastern District, guarded him, she said.

Danielle Jameson said an aunt also is an officer at the Eastern District. Jameson said police spent several hours in her basement the day of the shooting, poring over video shot from the seven surveillance cameras stationed on the outside of their home.

“They said the video didn’t show anything,” she said.

 

 

Source:The Detroit News/ George Hunter and Doug Guthrie