Zachary Phillip Duling, 30, has been taken into custody after a harrowing confrontation that left a Lansing officer injured and drew the suspense of a city, according to a statement by the Lansing Police Department. The Lansing State Journal reports that Duling, implicated in the Wednesday night incident where he reportedly hit an officer with his car and was subsequently shot at by the same officer, was found with a minor gunshot grazing wound upon arrest.
Details from the Lansing Police gathered by The Detroit News describe a tense exchange that unfolded around 6:22 p.m. on the 300 block of West Saginaw Street, this incident occurred a splice after Duling, wanted for a Jackson County probation violation averting Jackson County officers days prior, Duling, accompanied by an unknown witness at the time, reportedly initiated his vehicle towards an officer, who became "trapped between 2 vehicles," leading to the shooting as Duling fled the scene.
Before this violent altercation, several warrants were on Duling's record, including for fleeing and eluding, obstructing and resisting a police officer, and misdemeanors linked to dangerous drugs and misuse of a financial transaction device, as WLNS informed, Duling's flight response to law enforcement on Jan. 3 may have been "probably why he fled," per insights from Jackson County Sheriff Captain Kevin Hiller.
The officer involved in the shooting was treated for non-life-threatening injuries and is recovering at home, indicated by the Lansing police, who put the officer on administrative leave pending a review by Michigan State Police. In a chase that convinced local authorities to scour the Lansing, Jackson, and Ann Arbor regions for the suspect, it was not immediately clear if the passenger in Duling's car was injured during the incident, or their current whereabouts, according to FOX 2 Detroit.
Lansing police and other law enforcement agencies had urged anyone with information about the incident to contact Ingham County Central Dispatch at (517) 272-6026 or Crime Stoppers at (517) 483-7867.
