No charges for Shelby Township officer involved in fatal shooting

SHELBY TOWNSHIP — A Shelby Township police officer who fatally shot an armed man earlier this summer will not face criminal charges, according to the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office.

Macomb County Sheriff Anthony Wickersham and Macomb County Prosecutor Peter Lucido explained the investigation’s findings during a press conference Aug. 7 at the Sheriff’s Office in Mount Clemens.

“This type of incident is hard for everybody involved — the officers involved and the family,” Wickersham said.

Thomas Antonio Jackson, 41, of Troy, died after the June 3 incident in Shelby Township, which police said stemmed from a traffic stop on a white Dodge Caravan near Van Dyke Avenue and 22 Mile Road at approximately 3:16 p.m.

At that time, Jackson, of Troy, who authorities say had a suspended license, got out of the Dodge Caravan he was driving and fled from police, running through the parking lot of a coffee shop and other neighboring businesses.

The officer who chased Jackson on foot gave commands for him to stop and eventually deployed a Taser two times, but his efforts were ineffective, according to police. 

As Jackson continued to flee, another officer joined the chase, vocalizing that Jackson was armed with a gun. 

“As you can see in the video, Mr. Jackson pulled out a handgun and continued to run,” Wickersham said, following a presentation of the officer’s body cam footage. “A second officer arrived, and you can hear him yelling, ‘Gun! Gun!’”

Despite several verbal commands from police for Jackson to drop his gun, he did not. At that time, one officer fired eight shots, striking Jackson five times — once in the back of the leg, once in the buttocks, and three times in the upper front torso. Jackson was then transported to Corewell Health Beaumont Troy Hospital, where police said he died from the gunshot wounds. 

The Macomb County Sheriff’s Office investigated the incident and presented its findings to the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office.

Lucido said that after an “exhaustive review of the investigation,” his office’s major crime unit determined that it was “a justified shooting” and no charges would be filed.

“Why did he get out of the car and run,” Lucido said, when asked why the shooting was found to be justified. “Also, once there’s a gun involved, there’s a lethal duty, at that point there, to protect not only all others that are around, but also the officers themselves. In addition, when he was ordered and commanded to stop, he still went on after the tase attempt. There was also another officer on the opposite side yelling, “Gun! Gun! Gun!’ As a result of that, you have a duty to protect yourself and anyone else, as a lawful officer. In this case here, all he had to do was drop to the ground and obey the commands of the officer.”

Wickersham said Jackson had a 9 mm Ruger pistol on him at the time of the shooting. The handgun, he said, was reported stolen out of Detroit in 2023 in a larceny-from-auto complaint.

At the time of the incident, Jackson had several warrants for his arrest — including a probation violation out of district court in Canton and failure to appear for traffic offenses out of Dearborn, Bloomfield Hills, Bloomfield Township and Rochester Hills. 

The officer involved in the shooting — who police said has been with the department for seven years and has no prior disciplinary issues — was initially placed on administrative leave as required by department policy. The officer, Wickersham said, has since returned to work, following the results of the investigation.

Jackson’s family has retained an attorney, according to authorities.

“The Thomas Antonio Jackson family is deeply disappointed that criminal charges will not be brought against the Shelby Township officer who shot and killed Thomas,” Ven Johnson, president of Ven Johnson Law, said in an emailed statement. “The bodycam footage speaks for itself. Thomas clearly did not intend to harm the officer or anyone else. Running away from a police officer by a person who is not threatening an officer or anyone else, should not result in a death sentence. The family has retained Ven Johnson Law to fully and completely investigate this case from the civil law perspective, and that is exactly what we will do.”

At press time, the family had not filed a civil lawsuit.