ALSO SEE:
Officer Tamieka Moorehead: Allegedly assaulted by her husband. June 24, 2003:
Officer Tamieka Moorehead: Shot her husband, during domestic. August 18, 2003:
DETROIT COP ARRAIGNED IN HUSBAND'S SHOOTING
REPORT: PAIR ARGUED AFTER WOMAN CALLED
August 20, 2003
BY BEN SCHMITT
DETROIT FREE PRESS
A phone call from another woman began an argument that ended when a Detroit police officer shot and wounded her husband, according to a police report.
After shooting her 25-year-old husband in the neck and shoulder, Officer Tamieka Moorehead called her mother early Monday morning from her west-side Detroit home, telling her, "Mama, I shot him," the report says.
Moorehead, a five-year employee of the department, was arraigned via video Tuesday in Detroit's 36th District Court on a felony charge of assault with intent to murder, which is punishable by up to life in prison. Magistrate Charles Anderson III released her on a $100,000 personal bond at the request of her attorney, John Goldpaugh. Anderson ordered that she have no contact with her husband.
A preliminary exam is set for Sept. 2.
Goldpaugh said after the hearing that Moorehead, 26, was defending herself when she fired her handgun at her husband, Loniel Moorehead.
"My understanding is that he was attacking her, and she defended herself," Goldpaugh said, adding that the couple has had other domestic run-ins.
A police report says the fight began after a woman called the couple's home on the 16500 block of Winthrop asking for Loniel Moorehead.
After the 1:30 a.m. shooting, Loniel Moorehead stumbled next door to a neighbor's house and said, "She shot me," according to a police report filed with the court. Tamieka Moorehead followed, telling her neighbors, "We had an argument. I didn't mean to do it," the report says.
Officers arrived and found Loniel Moorehead sitting on his neighbor's front porch. He was rushed to the hospital.
He is at Sinai-Grace Hospital in Detroit, where he was listed in critical but stable condition, Tuesday. Police Cmdr. Craig Schwartz, who heads the major crimes division, said Moorehead is expected to recover.
Goldpaugh said Tamieka Moorehead called the police after the shooting and has been cooperative throughout the process. She was held in police custody until Tuesday's arraignment.
A check of records at 36th District Court show that police arrested Loniel Moorehead on a misdemeanor domestic violence charge for punching his wife several times on Dec. 31, 2000. The case was dismissed March 8, 2001, when Tamieka Moorehead failed to show up to testify at a subsequent hearing against her husband, the records indicate.
A suspension without pay recommendation will most likely be presented Thursday before the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners. Goldpaugh, a lawyer with the Detroit Police Officers Association, said the union does not usually contest suspensions on felony charges.
In July 2002, Police Chief Jerry Oliver, citing a problem with officers and domestic incidents, made it department policy to suspend all cops charged with any kind of domestic violence. The department previously suspended only those accused of felonies. Oliver was out of town and unavailable for comment Tuesday.
