WARREN, Mich. (AP) - A drug suspect being booked at police headquarters Wednesday pulled a gun from his pants, fatally shot a veteran detective, then turned the gun on himself.
Ljeka Juncaj, 29, arrested in an undercover drug operation, struggled with and shot Detective Christopher Wouters, Police Chief James Vohs said Thursday. Both men died in the hospital.
Juncaj was arrested with 400 ecstasy pills.
Vohs said other officers had arrested Juncaj, and he didn't know how the suspect got the gun into the police station. Ordinarily, officers said, a prisoner would have been frisked when arrested and again before booking.
Wouters, 42, was married and had three young children. The 19-year police veteran had recently scored highest on the sergeant's exam and was scheduled for promotion.
''Chris exceeded the standards of his profession,'' Vohs said. ''I will miss him deeply.''
Sgt. Kevin Sommers, a childhood friend, praised the man he played Little League baseball with.
''A part of us died last night. You couldn't ask for a better guy, a better friend, a better officer,'' Sommers said.
It was the first time since 1969 that an officer has been killed in the line of duty in Warren, a Detroit suburb.
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