Dash cams don't show suspect shootout

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - Dash-cam video obtained on Monday by Target 8 shows the end of the deadly chase after the Oct. 13 Ravenna bank robbery -- the chase that killed Walker Officer Trevor Slot -- but it doesn't include the shooting of the two suspects.
 
The Michigan State Police Freedom of Information Act unit initially denied releasing any of the video, but was later overruled by state police supervisors after an appeal by Target 8, which threatened legal action.
 
However, state police on Monday released only portions of the video, saying it would not include anything showing the deaths of suspects Darryl LaFave and Kris Cheyne.

State police also released 31 pages of police reports under the FOIA.
 
The end of the chase recorded on the dash-cams is dramatic, showing debris flying, apparently as Officer Slot was struck and killed on the off-ramp from I-96 to 8th Avenue.
 
One trooper wrote that he saw the getaway car -- a blue Oldsmobile Bravada -- "strike the officer that was running for his life. I observed debris fly as the collision occurred."
 
A witness told police it happened too quickly to tell whether the suspects purposely swerved at Officer Slot. The chase reached speeds of 120 mph.
 
One state police trooper wrote that the suspects shot at his patrol car, blowing out his driver's side window, after hitting the Walker officer. That trooper said he then engaged in a "gun battle" with the suspects, firing three to five shots at them.
 
The video shows a state police trooper trying to use his patrol car to ram one of the suspects. That suspect, Kristopher Cheyne, already was standing outside his getaway car and was carrying a gun.
 
Dash-cam video shows Cheyne managing to duck back. Then the trooper struck the driver's side door of the Bravada.
 
The dash-cam video then shows a state trooper outside his vehicle with his gun drawn.
 
Other troopers gave their own descriptions of the final moments.
 
Another trooper, Trooper Chris Bush, wrote that he did manage to clip Cheyne with his patrol vehicle, then pulled his service weapon and "observed the suspect coming at me with the long gun in his hands."
 
"The suspect was yelling at me and coming towards me with the gun pointed in my direction." The trooper said he fired several times at the suspect, who turned and ran.
 
Trooper Joseph Young wrote that the same suspect was "carrying a long gun in a threatening combat style."
 
The suspect then ran but stopped moments later, taking a "wide defensive stance while holding his weapon in a threatening manner," Young wrote.
 
Trooper Young then fired four rounds from a shotgun at the suspect, who "fell face down in the grass," the report says. By the time police reached him, he was dead, the trooper wrote.
 
While Young's report mentions nothing about that suspect firing shots at him, another trooper wrote that he saw the gunman firing a "shotgun" in the direction of Young and another trooper.
 
The second suspect, Derryl LaFave, stayed in the Bravada, police wrote.
 
A third trooper said he heard a Muskegon County deputy yelling at that suspect, heard the man yell back and could see him moving.

LaFave, who was in the back seat, then "began to level the gun in my direction and I fired 3-4 rounds into the suspect vehicle," the trooper wrote.
 
The Muskegon County deputy approached the back of the Bravada and fired "multiple rounds" into the backseat, the trooper wrote.
 
When police reached LaFave, he was "lying limp" in the back seat with the rifle upright, police wrote. The trooper felt a "faint pulse" then ran to his car for a first aid kit, he wrote. Troopers applied gauze and pressure to LaFave's wounds, but then heard him stop breathing, the report states.
 
Dash-cam video from three state police cruisers also shows the chase as it started just south of Ravenna. State police troopers already were headed that way after being alerted by the FBI, which had been tracking the suspects' Bravada with hidden GPS before the hold-up.
 
State police said the FBI notified them about 15 minutes before the robbery, according to police reports also obtained Monday by Target 8.
 
At least two unmarked FBI cars were in the area, though FBI officials said they did not witness the robbery of the ChoiceOne bank in Ravenna.
 
The video shows the chase as it raced through Coopersville, east on I-96 through Walker, then doubled back, headed west. Police say the suspects fired shots at them during the pursuit. Bullets struck a semi on I-96, punching a hole in the truck's gas tank, along with a tire and rim.