Records show problems with sheriff's department response to West Willow block party, shooting

The sheriff's department conducted an internal investigation, but no employees were suspended or fired, said Lt. Jim Anuszkiewicz, who is responsible for the western portion of the county. Anuszkiewicz said "corrective action" was taken, but would not discuss specifics. The department also has taken measures to ensure staff members have a "very clear understanding" of how to respond to such a party in the future, he said.

"Our response to the party was less than adequate," Anuszkiewicz said. “What went well that night was that the victim was recovered and was treated and is now out of the hospital. There was no additional people hurt, including citizens and deputies.”

Randy Clark, vice-president of the New West Willow Neighborhood Association, said there was no need for deputies to "stage" and wait for at least five police cars before responding to the shooting victim. Initial reports indicated the victim was pregnant.

"They've got a victim on the ground and they're staging?" Clark said. "What exactly are you afraid of?"

"It set everybody back leaps and bounds in terms of the trust issue," Clark said.

A loud party

The 911 recordings show deputies were aware of the large block party nearly two hours before the shooting. Residents told AnnArbor.com the party went on all day with loud music, people hanging out in the streets and cars parked on several streets.

Ultimately, two women called 911 early June 27 to complain about the party, with the first call coming in at 12:56 a.m.

“It’s crazy,” the caller said. “It’s like traffic in and out, in and out and then everybody is just like outside as well…Cars are parked all the way down Cayuga and people are parking on Onandago (Avenue) across the street from the school.”

The second caller described it as "like a riot or a big thing," estimating 200 people were there. She told the dispatcher it sounded like people were fighting because there was "cussing and arguing." The dispatcher asked whether anyone at the party had weapons, but the caller said she didn't know.

"It's like the whole block of Cayuga and they're all just acting a fool," she said.

Deputies responded to the neighborhood an hour later and told a woman to turn her music down, a patrol car video shows. She suggested they go down the street, apparently making reference to the block party there.

The video shows cars parked along the street, and Buffa calls it a "mess."

“Let’s just go,” Buffa says. “What are you gonna do, dude? I mean, what are we gonna do?”

Buffa tells dispatch, "There is a large crowd out here, but they seem to be ruly at the moment."

As the deputies leave the neighborhood, Larkin says, “It just sucks that we can’t do anything with that. Even if we had our two other cars, it’s still not enough people. It’s a joke.”

Three patrol cars staffed by two deputies each were working in the township that night, but two cars were tied up with other calls during the party, sheriff's Cmdr. Dieter Heren said.

Heren said he wouldn't have wanted Buffa and Larkin to approach the party by themselves.

“Obviously, there was definitely room for improvement..." Heren said. “They felt their hands were tied trying to deal with several hundred people at a large party.”

A woman is shot

Dispatchers received a third 911 call - this one 90 minutes after the first complaint about the block party and 22 minutes before the first call of shots fired. In that call, a man said his daughter contacted him, telling him someone was trying to shoot his son in the West Willow neighborhood.

He explained his daughter and son "went to a birthday party out there." Dispatchers learned the shooting could occur in the middle of Eugene Avenue, which is near where it intersects with Cayuga Street.

"We'll have someone go check the area," a dispatcher said.

No patrol cars responded, Anuszkiewicz confirmed.

"There was very limited information," Anuszkiewicz said. "During that time, we were responding to other calls of shots fired complaints on the other side of the township."

Roughly 20 minutes later, Angela Barbash was on the front porch of her Cayuga Street home, making sure several of her friends made it safely out of the neighborhood.

"The whole vibe on the street changed and we were like, you know, this is something we should watch," she said.

She heard what sounded like fireworks, but quickly realized it was gunshots. A man across the street was firing a handgun into the crowd, she said. She heard 15 shots.

“There were people running,” she said. “It was just chaos. I can’t imagine how he could have seen who he was shooting at.”

The first 911 call of shots fired came into dispatch at 2:48 a.m., with the first report that a woman was hit coming in a minute later. Dispatchers received reports of gunfire on Cayuga Street and from a car on Oswego Avenue.

Barbash reported the shooting at 2:49 a.m. and called again 12 minutes later, asking dispatchers what was going on.

"Dude, it's Cayuga Street..." she told the dispatcher. "Where are the cops? Someone's been shot out here."

In her second call, Barbash told the dispatcher no one was shooting, and the crowd had dwindled to 20 to 30. The dispatcher said she needed enough officers to clear up the situation.

"Ma'am, if my officers go in there and they don't have enough people and they get shot, what happens then?" the dispatcher said.

Akara Pressley, 24, was having contractions that night, hours before giving birth to her third child, and went for a walk outside to feel more comfortable. She saw people running from the shooting and questioned why deputies didn't get there faster.

"It shouldn't take them that long to come to a problem," she said.

Videos show deputies entered the neighborhood with lights and sirens after at least five patrol cars gathered at the staging area on Dorset Avenue, several blocks from the party. Deputies didn't reach the victim until 2:59 a.m., five minutes after the last 911 call about shots being heard, records show.

Anuszkiewicz said a state trooper stopped a possible suspect vehicle near the staging area, and deputies wanted to make sure the trooper was safe before going into the shooting scene.

"If you take the traffic stop out of that, I think we would have had a different response," he said.

Moving forward

The neighborhood has had its share of tension with the sheriff's deputies in the past. In 2006, a man suffocated to death under a pile of deputies on Cayuga Street after he approached a traffic stop involving his nephew, and a struggle ensued.

Five deputies were shot by a gang leader in 1995 at the intersection of Seneca and Calder streets.

But those incidents have nothing to do with how the department responds to calls, Anuszkiewicz said.

A deputy begins putting up crime scene tape at the scene of the shooting.

"We don't have any different response to the West Willow neighborhood than we do any other neighborhood," he said.

During the past three months, the most common crime reported in the neighborhood was residential burglary, with 20 reported, statistics show.

Deputies question whether additional staffing could have made a difference the night of the shooting. The township contracts for 31 deputies, with one deputy for every 1,700 residents — the second worst such ratio in the county, deputies said.

The sheriff's department requested assistance from other agencies that night. Two Michigan State Police cars, an Ypsilanti police car and a Pittsfield Township police car responded to the shooting scene, Anuszkiewicz said. Eastern Michigan University police officers provided assistance at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, he said.

Sheriff Jerry Clayton, Director of Community Engagement Derrick Jackson and other sheriff's officials have met with residents and township officials to discuss the response.

Jackson called it an isolated incident. Deputies have stepped up foot and mounted patrols, continue to work with the community on a youth basketball program and are helping out with a Citizen Patrol program, he said.

“I do feel like a lot of good has come from this,” Jackson said. “A lot of growth has come from this. It shouldn't derail us from all the positive work that we’ve done.”

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Lee Higgins covers crime and courts for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached by phone at (734) 623-2527 and e-mail at leehiggins@annarbor.com.