STERLING HEIGHTS — Sterling Heights police officers shot and fatally wounded a man armed with a shotgun after responding to a domestic dispute at the Durham Apartments July 12.

According to police, officers responded to a complaint in the 37000 block of Durham, near Metropolitan Parkway and Van Dyke, around 6:45 a.m. A woman reportedly told police that she and her 30-year-old live-in boyfriend had become embroiled in a verbal altercation, at which time he threatened to kill her cat.

As officers spoke to the woman outside, the boyfriend, Roy Lee Long, allegedly emerged from the apartment wielding a shotgun. According to police, Long failed to comply with officers’ repeated orders to drop his weapon and instead continued to approach the woman and law enforcement personnel.

After Long allegedly appeared to begin raising the shotgun in the direction of police, two officers fired several shots him, killing him.

Reese said officers are trained to fire their weapons if they believe their lives are in danger, and the personnel on the scene felt that was the case.

“When (Long) exited that apartment with a shotgun, he was ordered numerous times to put the shotgun down,” he said. “There was a verbal confrontation going on between the officers and him.”

Neither the female victim nor any Sterling Heights police officers were injured in the incident.

Long’s autopsy was conducted the morning of July 14, “so it’ll be a few weeks before we get the toxicology results and we see whether alcohol or drugs had any play in the incident,” said Reese.

Reese said police were not aware of any history of mental illness on Long’s part. He indicated police had never been called out in the past to the apartment shared by Long and his girlfriend.

“We had no contact with them at all prior to this,” he said.

The Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office and the Sterling Heights Police Department’s Investigations Division currently are investigating the shooting. Per standard procedure, the two officers involved are on paid administrative leave pending the investigation’s completion, said Reese.

The last officer-involved shooting in Sterling came in October 2006, when police fatally wounded a 15-year-old who allegedly stole a car and, after leading officers on a chase and crashing the vehicle, pointed a device resembling a 9-mm handgun at officers. The object was later identified as an imitation gun, said Reese.

In June 2004, Sterling Heights Officer Mark Sawyers, 29, was shot and killed by Timothy Berner in the 15 Mile and Van Dyke area. Police believe Berner killed Sawyers for his service revolver.

Reese said that as far as he’s aware, the last shooting involving an officer prior to Sawyers’ death occurred in the 1980s.

You can reach Staff Writer Cortney Casey at ccasey@candgnews.com or at (586) 498-1046.