DETROIT – A man was killed in Detroit during a shootout with Warren police on Tuesday morning, and it has led to several questions about what exactly happened.
It started when Warren police officers responded to a home on the 13000 block of Prospect Avenue at around 2:50 a.m. on July 8, 2025, regarding a reported domestic disturbance.
The caller said that her boyfriend had beaten and strangled her before trying to set the house on fire.
The man, identified by family and friends as Rakim Wright, drove off before police arrived.
Warren police tracked Wright into Detroit at East 6 Mile Road and Van Dyke Avenue.
When the cops arrived at the area, they found him in his car, triggering the police chase.
What happened after that has gone into question.
Warren police said Wright fired several shots at them from his car before hopping out near his mother’s home on Castle and Montlieu avenues.
The police claim he resumed shooting at officers while running away before he was found shot in the head in his mother’s backyard.
However, Local 4 obtained video from a man who lives across the street from Wright’s mother, Sheila, that shows the aftermath of the incident.
He is one of Wright’s closest friends.
Choosing to stay off camera until he gets permission from Wright’s family to speak, he says he briefly spoke to Wright before police arrived.
Once the chase wound back into the neighborhood, he heard between 40 and 50 total shots.
He said that he saw police immediately start shooting at Wright’s car, and then eventually shooting at Wright, who he says got out of the car with his hands up and unarmed.
By the time the video started, Wright had just collapsed to the ground in his mother’s backyard, dead from a gunshot wound to the head.
“They shot Rock,” he can be heard saying to his wife in the video. “He’s in the expletive backyard, Sheila. Your baby’s lying on the ground in the backyard. Y’all opened fire in the middle of a neighborhood, and nobody got any weapons on them!”
Wright was pronounced dead at the scene.
Warren Police initially said it’s unclear if Wright shot himself or police shot him during the chase.
Wright’s friends who witnessed it say there is no question that he did not kill himself.
Local 4 also reached out to the Detroit police, who are assisting in the investigation, to determine if the Warren police had informed them that they were pursuing Wright in their jurisdiction.
We have yet to hear a response.