Update: University Police Officer Shot in the Head in Detroit Dies

Update: University Police Officer Shot in the Head in Detroit Dies
Police stand near the command center as they search for a suspect in the shooting of a Wayne State University officer in Detroit on Nov. 22, 2016. (Steve Perez/Detroit News via AP)
The Associated Press
11/23/2016
Updated:
11/23/2016

Authorities investigate after shooting of a Wayne State University officer in Detroit on Nov. 22, 2016. (Steve Perez/Detroit News via AP)
Authorities investigate after shooting of a Wayne State University officer in Detroit on Nov. 22, 2016. (Steve Perez/Detroit News via AP)

The university’s president, M. Roy Wilson, said Rose still has a tough road ahead.

Shortly after the shooting, several dozen armed officers were engaged in a manhunt in the residential area of Woodbridge, within two blocks of the campus. According to a statement posted on the university’s website, police were searching for an African-American man in his 40s with a full beard. It said he was wearing a white T-shirt with white and black lettering, a skull cap and a brown jacket.

Police arrested the person of interest without incident about three blocks from where the shooting happened, Dolunt said.

The shootings of police officers in Texas and Missouri on Sunday were the latest in what law enforcement officials say is an alarming spike in ambush-style attacks. A San Antonio detective was fatally shot, and a St. Louis officer was shot twice in the face but survived. Police officers were also shot and injured during traffic stops in Sanibel, Florida, and Gladstone, Missouri, on Sunday night, but authorities have not suggested those were targeted attacks.

Police search the area where an officer who works for Wayne State University was shot in the head while on duty near the campus in Detroit on Nov. 22, 2016. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Police search the area where an officer who works for Wayne State University was shot in the head while on duty near the campus in Detroit on Nov. 22, 2016. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

One-third of police officers shot to death on the job this year were purposely targeted by their assailant, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.

Wilson said police don’t have a motive for the shooting, or “whether it was an ambush or something different.” Citing the shootings Sunday, he said: “That’s something that’s crossed our minds.”

Rose was a cadet with the New Baltimore Police Department and had his first job as an officer with the village of Richland, Lockwood said. Rose, a cyclist interested in dog training, graduated from Ferris State University in 2010 and was president of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity.

“That shows you his leadership right there,” Lockwood said.

Wayne State has more than 27,000 students and is located in the heart of Detroit. Wilson said the school employs around 65 officers.