2-7-2014 Michigan:A Kalamazoo man shot and killed by Public Safety Officers during an ongoing sexual assault investigation has been identified by his relatives.
FOX17′s Troy Campbell spoke with Wanda Coskey, who identified the deceased as 42-year-old Brad Allen Mason, her son. Online records with the Michigan Sex Offender Registry show Mason was a registered sex offender, with a past conviction for Accosting a Child for Immoral Purposes in 2006.
His registered address is the same location where a deadly confrontation took place with Public Safety Officers Friday night. Police have not officially released the name of the deceased.
Officers were sent to his home in the 100 block of Dutton St. around 5:30 p.m., not far from Bronson Hospital, to follow up on a sexual assault that happened earlier in the week. Official details on what led investigators to his location have yet to be released.
In a press release earlier this week, detectives announced they were looking for a white male in his mid to late 30′s with dirty blonde or brown hair and a short beard connected to the abduction and sexual assault of a 24-year-old woman in the area of Fairview and University Streets in Kalamazoo early Wednesday morning. Investigators say the suspect grabbed the woman and forced her into a red truck and drove away from the area, sexually assaulted her, then released her near the area where she’d been abducted.
Relatives of Mason told FOX17 Mason owned a red truck, but there’s still no official word that this was a reason officers arrived at the Dutton Street home on Friday night.
Kalamazoo Public Safety Chief Jeff Hadley says when the officers made contact Friday night, the individual displayed what appeared to be a handgun and pointed it towards officers. In response to the immediate threat, officers fired their service weapons striking the individual. Chief Hadley says in a press release that medical attention was immediately administered to the individual, who was later pronounced dead.
“They said Brad was on the steps of his apartment”, said Wanda Coskey. “And the police saw him with a gun and asked him to put it down, I guess 3 times, I didn’t know of any gun.”
Coskey told FOX17 a friend was on the phone with Brad during the confrontation with police, and heard the event unfold.
“A friend of Brad’s was on the phone and heard the police say 3 times put the gun down, and then there was 5 shots fired”, said Coskey.
Investigators with the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety haven’t released specific details on the deadly shooting, which is now under investigation by the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety Professional Standards Bureau and the Criminal Investigations Division, which is standard protocol and procedure in this type of investigation.
Further details of the deadly officer-involved shooting are expected at a news conference scheduled for Monday, February 10th. ..Source.. by Fox17News.com
UPDATE: Kalamazoo man shot to death in confrontation with Public Safety
2-7-2014:
A person of interest in the abduction and rape in the Westnedge Hill Neighborhood early Wednesday is reportedly dead, after an armed confrontation with Public Safety Officers outside an apartment building in the 100 block of Dutton Street late Friday afternoon.
Chief Jeff Hadley says the suspect had a handgun and pointed it at officers and they responded with deadly force.
The suspect was pronounced dead at the scene. His family identified him as 42-year-old Brad Mason, an ex-con and registered sex offender.
Public Safety had been looking for the scruffy looking white male who allegedly abducted a woman off the street, transporting her to a location and sexually assaulting her in a red pick-up, before dropping her off back in the Westnedge Hill area.
Mason was a person of interest in that case when they appeared at his door and they say they were met by Mason holding a gun. A red pick-up was removed from the area that may have been used in the abduction.
The Chief isn’t saying so, but normally in such situations, the officers involved are put on administrative leave or desk duty until its determined whether lethal force was justified.
He says the Department's Office of Professional Standards and the Criminal Investigations Division will conduct separate reviews, according to protocol.
Hadley says they are planning a Monday news conference. ..Source.. by John McNeill
Man killed by Kalamazoo police had air pistol
KALAMAZOO, Mich. (AP) -- Authorities say a man who was shot and killed during a confrontation with officers in West Michigan was wielding an air pistol.
Kalamazoo Public Safety Chief Jeff Hadley told reporters Monday that "it would be impossible for anyone, including an officer, to distinguish" the air pistol Brad Mason had from another weapon.
Hadley said the toy's orange safety tip and other markings had been removed.
Mason, a suspect in an abduction and sexual assault case, was shot Friday outside his apartment.
Hadley said officers saw what appeared to be a black handgun in Mason's hand. The officers retreated to a front porch and ordered Mason to drop the weapon.
Hadley said Mason kept walking toward the officers and pointed the gun at them when he was shot multiple times. ..Source.. by WZZM
‘Suicide by cop’ may be a factor of officer-involved fatal shooting in Vine neighborhood shooting Feb. 7, police say
Suicide by cop may have been a factor in the officer-involved shooting that killed 42-year-old Brad Allen Mason on Friday Feb. 7 in Kalamazoo’s Vine neighborhood, according to Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety Chief Jeff Hadley.
The shooting took place at 103 W. Dutton St., as police had identified and sought after Mason as the primary suspect in a rape/abduction case from Wednesday Feb. 5 on Westnedge Hill, when Mason allegedly abducted and raped a 24-year-old female.
Hadley said that Mason was a registered sex offender known to drive a red pick-up truck “matching the description of the one given by the victim of the abduction/rape.”
Based on Mason’s description and investigation, KDPS officers and detectives sought Mason on Friday Feb. 7 at 5:36 p.m. in his home on Dutton Street by obtaining a search warrant, and was let in to the building by Mason’s landlord. Police were then met by Mason, who pointed a handgun at the officers.
Public Safety Officers retreated to the porch area and instructed Mason to drop the handgun but he did not comply. Public Safety Officers fired their weapons “in an effort to stop the immediate and imminent threat that Mr. Mason posed to them and their safety,” Hadley said. Upon being hit by gunfire multiple times, Mason was handcuffed and CPR and life-saving efforts were immediately rendered to Mason. Mason was pronounced dead on the scene.
“There is nothing that leads me to believe that these officers acted anything but valiantly and with the upmost courage and professionalism,” Hadley said.
The two officers that were involved in the shooting are currently on excused time off, and Hadley did not identify the officers.
“On the face, [suicide by cop] is certainly what it appears to be,” said Hadley, and noted that Mason left three notes before he confronted the police when they arrived at his address.
One letter was addressed to a family member and the other two were meant for separate friends. One of the letters included a “Last Will and Testament”, according to Hadley.
Hadley added that Mason’s girlfriend, who has not been identified, said in a statement to the police that Mason told her on the night of the shooting that ”the police are here, they are going to have to kill me.”
“I believe the statements made by Mr. Mason to his girlfriend just prior to his engaging the officers and pointing the handgun at them, coupled with the three handwritten letters and the text within those letters, points to a conclusion that Mr. Mason sought,” said Hadley.
Police have identified the handgun used by Mason as a “Galaxy” Air-Soft handgun. Hadley said that the orange safety tip had been removed from the handgun.
“In interviews with Mr. Mason’s girlfriend the night of the shooting she advised that [the Air-Soft handgun] was purchased by them sometime in November of 2012,” said Hadley. ”In looking at the handgun it would be impossible for anyone, including an officer to distinguish this weapon from any other.”
Hadley said police do not know if the victim of the abduction/rape case, in which Mason was a suspect, was a Western Michigan University student. ..Source.. by Christina Cantero
Kalamazoo officers’ actions “justified” in shooting death of sex offender
7-16-2014 Michigan:
Two Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety officers will have no charges filed against them in the officer-involved shooting death of sex offender Brad Mason.
Kalamazoo County Chief Prosecutor Jeff Getting said the actions of both Officer Timothy Knight and Officer John Vandenberg are justified.
“Public Officer Timothy Knight and Public Safety Officer John Vandenberg’s actions on February 7, 2014 were justified. As a result, no charges will be filed by this office against either of them,” stated Getting.
On February 7, 2014 Mason pointed a Galaxy Model G6 Airsoft handgun at officers. Investigators said Mason had removed the orange tip, and any other pieces that would have identified the gun as an airsoft gun, from the weapon.
“It is indistinguishable from any large frame semi-automatic handgun,” said Getting.
A group of eight to 10 KDPS officers were on the scene of Mason’s home at the time of the shooting. “(Officer Knight and Officer Vandenberg) were each able to hear the commands given to Mason to drop that weapon,” said Getting. “They each saw Mason raise that weapon in his right hand and point it towards the officers. Each fired only after Mr. Mason had pointed the gun at officers in the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety.”
As FOX 17 has reported, Mason had abducted and violently sexually assaulted a Kalamazoo woman just two days before he was shot and killed. Police surrounded his home after finding his red pick-up truck parked there, with a large amount of the victim’s blood in the driver’s seat.
Police are calling Mason’s death an officer-assisted suicide, after analyzing evidence including three letters found in envelopes in his apartment; each with language anticipating his death, and one addressed to his mother.
“Finally in the letter to his mother, Mr. Mason had wrote, ‘I have to let go, mom, I will be in peace mother. I hope that you can smile again someday. Please smile for me mom,’” quoted Getting.
Kalamazoo Public Safety Police Chief Jeff Hadley said the officers were both hired in 2007, have received awards of excellence, and have never been discipline for excessive use of force. Chief Hadley told FOX 17 that the officers accept what they had to do.
“I’ve never met an officer in my 23 years in this business that wants to get into an officer-involved shooting that wears it as a badge of honor, that puffs their chest out or anything like that. These officers are good officers, they did what they had to do. I think that they accept that,” explained Hadley. ..Source.. by Dana Chicklas,
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