Dowagiac Police stretched thin by two incidents

Dowagiac, Mich- Dowagiac Police were stretched a little thin on Wednesday, with two gun related incidents within 90 minutes of each other.

The first was a domestic shooting at a home on Pokagon Street. A female called police shortly before 11 a.m. because she shot her boyfriend. Police found him with two gunshot wounds in his leg.

Shortly later, just past noon, police were called to Vineyard Place Apartments for a man running around with a gun. After talking with witnesses, police found a man with a rifle and a realistic looking pellet handgun.  

At both situations, Dowagiac police were assisted by Cass County Sheriff and Pokagon Tribal Police.

Police Chief Steve Grinnewald spoke with ABC 57’s Taylor Popielarz on Thursday. He said both the incidents in such a short time really stretched the small department thin.

“When you’re a department that covers – this is our city, this is our department, this is our area. And when you have to have somebody else come in and take care of that for you, you don’t like that because you feel it’s your responsibility, but you are grateful that you do have other departments that are there to help you,” said Grinnewald.

Grinnewald said when he heard about the second incident he started calling in off duty officers.

“The stars aligned for us and it wasn’t a very busy day outside of what was going on here. So the county was not tied up with a lot of things; the Tribal Police were not tied up with a lot of things. They were able to help us. Had that happened? We would’ve been scraping. You know, we would’ve only had a couple of people to respond.”

In the first incident, a 31-year-old woman was arrested for assault with intent to commit great bodily harm less than murder.

In the second, the 20-year-old suspect was arrested for felonious assault, brandishing a firearm, reckless driving, and driving with no operator’s license.

Police say both incidents are not related.