GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The police chief is criticizing “hostile crowds” for hindering officers while they responded to a shooting that hurt four people July Fourth weekend.
Grand Rapids Police Department (GRPD) officers responded to a shooting on Sunday, July 5, after 1:30 a.m. near southeast Madison Avenue and southeast Adams Street, and according to recently-appointed GRPD Chief Joseph Trigg, a “hostile” crowd “refused to clear the way” for an ambulance to safely drive up.
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Officers shot PepperBall, a nonlethal pepper spray projectile, into the crowd to disperse them which officers said “helped, but wasn’t enough for the ambulance to get through.”
Officers ended up carrying a seriously hurt man to EMTs about 300 feet away rather than continue waiting for room in the crowd for an ambulance to drive closer. This happened with “active gunfire” still going on in the area, officers said…