Mistakes Were Made in Scottville Robbery/Dog Shooting

[XLFD]

If you're from the West Michigan area, you have probably heard of an event that happened just about a mile north from downtown Scottville just yesterday.  Here's one of the first accounts of the incident from WZZM out of Grand Rapids, about what happened.

AMBER TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WZZM) -- Multiple law enforcement agencies are involved in the search for whoever broke into a Mason County home, threatened the resident, and shot the resident's dog.

Mason Co. Sheriff Kim Cole told WZZM 13 the incident was reported around 11:30 Thursday morning at a home in the 500 block of W. Hansen Rd. in Amber Twp., just west of US-31 north of Scottville.

The resident was coming home and saw someone coming out of the house. That individual then pointed a gun at the resident. The resident then drove away, calling 911 while also heading toward a deputy seen moments earlier conducting a traffic stop.

Deputies arrived on-scene within a minute and a half, the Sheriff said, and went into the house, where they discovered the suspect had fled, apparently out the back door and into some woods. They also found the resident's dog had been shot and injured. The dog was taken to a veterinarian for treatment.

U.S. Forest Service officers are helping the Sheriff Department with the search, as are canine units from Lake County and Michigan State Police. There may be another suspect, in addition to the armed individual.

Upnorthlive Live, affiliated with two other TV stations to the north, had their own story with an interview of the Sheriff and the victims of the break in, a little more comprehensive for their evening news reports.  Fox 17 out of Grand Rapids had another report of their own.  If you look through all of them, you will find that none have a meaningful description of the suspects.  This was noted even in one of the Mason County Press' articles about the incident's eventual clearing.

However, the initial report from MCP claims: 

"Cole said the first deputy was on scene within two minutes of being dispatched but did not locate a suspect, being described as a black male, about 5-feet, 10-inches wearing a black hoodie and a baseball cap.

The victim, who is black, was not harmed."

We note that the two homeowners were a mixed couple, but wonder why the three big news stations and later local news reports seem to avoid the issue of the race of the criminal perpetrators.  Mason County has less than 1% of their population being black, so this trait would be rather easy to spot here if the nearby public was apprised of it, the black hoodie and baseball cap would have also been helpful.  The City of Ludington Daily News (COLDNews) accounts seem to have glossed over that fact earlier but later updated it, deep inside the story. 

Leaving out a very distinguishable identifier in the overall story is perhaps within many of these media general idea of political correctness, so that they do not get charged with their own racial profiling, but before we blame the media for the oversight, the police agencies may not have conveyed that information all that quickly to the media, and what they did was unreliable. 

And, even though many Scottville schools were within the manhunt's search area, they were never notified of the events happening that day by law enforcement.

The Mason County Press reported MCC Schools, whose grounds are less than one mile from the robbery/shooting scene were never notified even though the school day wasn't even halfway through, strangely enough, a half of a county away, the Ludington Schools notified their people of the situation.  Both schools apparently got their news from social media, not from the multiple law enforcement agencies at the site. 

“Unfortunately the MCC School District did not receive any notification from law enforcement regarding this incident,” MCC Superintendent Mount said. “It was only through social media and news that we were even made aware of anything happening. All contact with law enforcement were initiated by us.

[wildfire]

Hey lets vote for Fiers back, and get red of Cole, lol

[XLFD]

I believe Cole sill has the overwhelming support of the rank and file in the MCSO, due to his loyalty to them and his ability to get more from the county than Fiers did-- remember Jeff Fiers was giving money back to the county, Sheriff Cole just keeps finding new things to ask for. 

If Fiers runs in 2016, he will be vilified even more by Sheriff Cole and the rest of the MCSO as someone who won't spend enough to keep Mason County safe.  But a fiscally conservative sheriff is exactly what we need.  I hope he does run and the electorate looks closely at the rhetoric this time, since both have a record of what they have done as sheriff.

[wildfire]

So now they are saying the dudes that shot Mr/Marble are black? when we looked at that vedio and it looked like they were all white, well if thats the case who are they n were did they come from? or  is this just another one of MCSO way of covering up more of their lies.

[Jasper]

No updates have been provided by the MCSO related to this case?  Really?

Surely, the tax-paying citizens of Mason County who pay the salaries of the MCSO, but also the MSP are at least entitled to an update.    This very serious situation caused numerous upon numerous inconveniences, disruptions of normal daily life,  panic at local schools, panic of resident's in the locale etc..

Are not the citizens who pay the salaries of the MCSO, and the MSP owed an update after thousands upon thousands of dollars were spent in the search for the man(men) who allegedly broke into the home and shot their dog?

Are these(men)man still at large, and perhaps another victim(victim's) could fall for their prey?

Why the silence from LE?

[XLFD]

Good question.  Four weeks later, nothing but silence.  No updates have been spoon-fed to the local media, nor have the nearby TV stations inquired any further.  It's about time for a FOIA request to see what the MCSO wants to share with the public.  I betcha they don't want to share much and claim the typically baseless 'active investigation' exemptions. 

[Jane]

This was a setup to see how easily the police could block roads, route traffic, and bring in swat style military appearing "police" with a goal of desensitizing the mason county population to these police actions. This "robbery" never happened.

[XLFD]

That would explain certain things about the events of that day and the aftermath, but do you have solid proof of that Jane?

[Jane]

Pure speculation!

[Willy]

I doubt this was a "fake" crime in order to see what the response would be from LE. If it was, it would be the biggest scandal and scam ever pulled on the citizens of Mason County. I heard of emergency exercises but never a phony crime and shooting. I do know that the Sheriff must come clean and let the people know what actually happened. If he doesn't then he does not deserve to represent Mason County.

[shinblind]

With the perps being black and the problems the local LEO's seem to have with anger issues is it any wonder that Sheriff Kim Cole would rather see this "crime" swept under his administrative rug rather than see the County exposed to another lawsuit under his watch, this time with racial overtones.

[XLFD]

Reasonable people make their own conclusions when they weigh in all of the factors of this situation.  Jane has made her own speculation based on her read.  If I was to speculate, it might go something like this:

1)  Masked individual, said to be black, and possibly another, breaks into a black man's house

2) Guy is found out by surprise return of homeowner, points gun at him, heads out cross country.

3) Guy had shot dog, apparently took nothing.

4) Police, almost immediately on scene, have no clue as to where the perp went even with all their resources.

5) No news since

What if the perp was a member of the local police's SSCENT team on the search for illegal drugs or other criminal enterprises, but lacking enough evidence for a warrant at the man's residence?  

I have heard credible reports that SSCENT team members in the area recently have made similar warrantless forays into people's homes.  If they did, you know they would try to go undercover.  Police point guns, shoot dogs, as a matter of their job. 

Was it happenstance the county deputy was that close by, or perhaps did they drop off the man themselves?  This would explain why no getaway vehicle was at or near the house. 

Did they perhaps then overplay the search while they made sure the perp/team member got away, but botch some of the protocols because they knew exactly what happened and only needed to make it look legit in the eyes of the public?