Benton Harbor shooting: Officer wounds suspect in shootout, police say

A police officer shot someone during an exchange of gunfire outside a home in the southwestern Michigan city of Benton Harbor early Tuesday, police said.

Details about the wounded person’s condition weren’t released, and few details about the shooting were immediately available.

The shooting happened after 2 a.m. ET as Benton Harbor police officers arrived in a neighborhood to respond to a call, Michigan State Police 1st Lt. Chuck Christensen told reporters.

When the officers arrived, someone fired a gun, and one of the officers returned fire, wounding the shooter, Christensen told reporters.

“We do know there were shots fired by a suspect and then shots fired by police,” he said.

The gunfire was exchanged outside the home, and both the suspect and the officer fired several shots, Christensen said. He said he didn’t know why the officers had been called to the area.

No officer was injured. The names of those involved in the shooting were not immediately released.

“What we need to do is ask the community to let us work through it, collect the facts that we need to collect and do a good, thorough investigation on exactly what occurred, and that’s going to take a little bit of time,” Christensen said.

Benton Harbor, a city of about 10,000 near Lake Michigan, is about 190 miles west of Detroit and about a 100-mile drive northeast of Chicago.

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