Cop Shot His Colleague

Genesee County Sheriff’s Deputy Brandon Fachting was critically wounded when he was shot twice by Brendan Patrick Pinkston, a suspect Fachting and other officers chased through a residential neighborhood in Burton on Dec. 21, 2021. Another officer, Burton Police Officer Dalton Christie, was also seriously wounded when he was hit by several rounds of gunfire during the pursuit. Reports and video from the incident obtained by MLive-The Flint Journal through the Freedom of Information Act show Christie’s wounds were the result of bullets fired by another Burton police officer Cody Monroe.
“Officer Monroe fired his long gun at what he thought was the suspect who shot Deputy Fachting,” one police report reads. “Officer Monroe’s rounds struck Officer Christie, causing injuries to his lower extremities.” The police reports and body camera video only recently became available after authorities concluded their investigation into the shooting in late 2022. Information from police originally said officers responded to the area of Saginaw Street and Bristol Road in Burton on the afternoon of Dec. 21, 2021.
When the officers arrived at the scene, they spotted Pinkston who ran away from them. While officers chased Pinkston, he attempted to get away from them while climbing a fence. That fence collapsed on top of Pinkston, pinning him to the ground. According to what police presented at the time, Christie and Fachting were pulling the fence off the suspect when he opened fire. The officer and deputy returned fire and Pinkston was shot multiple times. He was pronounced dead at the scene. A police report authored by Capt. Jason Murphy of the Genesee County Sheriff’s Office reviewing the fatal shooting of the suspect – which was listed as justifiable homicide – breaks down the situation in more detail, shedding light on what happened in the moments before and after Pinkston was killed. Officer Down Genesee County Central Dispatch received a 911 call reporting a white male wearing gray pants and a white shirt had shot a pistol at a house behind the caller’s home. Fachting, Christie and two other Burton police officers, Cody Monroe, and Farah Glasstetter, responded to the call. When the officers arrived at the scene, they approached the house in the 2100 block of Bristol Road. As they walked toward the house, a banging sound can be heard on body camera video from the officers. Then, the officers are alerted by an alarm sound indicating someone was breaking into the home. According to the sheriff’s office report, Fachting and Monroe chased after Pinkston, who climbed a fence into the backyard of a neighboring home. Fachting found Pinkston in the yard of a Connell Street home, beneath a section of a wooden privacy fence that had fallen on top of him. When Fachting lifted the fence, Pinkston immediately pointed a handgun at him, firing twice. Fachting returned fire, discharging five rounds from his service weapon. Pinkston was struck by the gunfire and died at the scene. Fachting was critically injured. He had been shot twice – once above his vest, a shot that entered his chest and exited the right side of his body, and a second time in his magazine pouch. The second shot penetrated the leather on the magazine pouch, struck the loaded magazine causing damage, then exited the opposite end of the magazine pouch and struck Fachting’s leather duty belt.
Christie, who had been with the Burton Police Department for about one year at the time of the shooting, approached the scene from Connell Street, one house to the east of where the shooting took place. As he approached the scene, Fachting was on the ground and injured. Pinkston was under the wooden privacy fence. As Christie gave verbal commands to Pinkston, gunshots rang out and Christie was struck by the gunfire before retreating behind a van for cover. Christie was shot seven times in his lower extremities, according to the sheriff’s report. While the shots were being fired, Monroe was hopping a fence, running closer to the scene. He opened fire toward another fence with his rifle – a spurt of about 12 rounds.
 Immediately afterward, a man can be heard yelling expletives. “I got him – he’s hit,” Monroe can be heard saying. As the officer approaches, however, Christie can be heard yelling: “Officer hit!” Monroe provided medical assistance to Christie first, helping him stop the bleeding from his right leg with a tourniquet. He then walked to Fachting, who’d fallen to the ground. He was able to quietly tell Monroe he had been shot in the leg and chest. ‘Just keep breathing’ A mass of police officers surrounded Fachting as he lay on the ground. He grew pale and was bent over backward, his legs bent at the knees under him. Glasstetter, with her hands on his chest, repeatedly said, “Oh s***, oh s***.” Another paramedic, deputy Sean Clayton, spoke to the injured deputy. “Just keep breathing,” he said. “Keep f****** breathing.” Officers lifted Fachting, loading him into the back of a vehicle that transported him to Hurley Medical Center in Flint. Monroe then returned to Christie, who was on the ground, his pants torn to reveal gunshot wounds to his legs. Once Christie’s wounds were dressed, Monroe spoke with other officers who arrived on the scene and attempted to organize the situation. “I think one of my bullets hit Christie,” Monroe said. “There was movement on that side of the fence…” Monroe was cut off as another officer told him to stop talking. But later, while walking with an officer, he continued. “I just saw a blur behind the fence, which I thought was the suspect, and I fired around that fence,” he said. “I think one of my bullets hit Christie in the leg.” Fachting would spend nine days at Hurley’s Intensive Care Unit, according to the report. Christie was shot seven times. An autopsy was conducted on Pinkston the day after the shooting. He’d also been shot seven times. One year later Investigations into the incident that left two officers injured and a suspect dead were conducted by the Genesee County Sheriff’s Office, as well as the Burton Police Department. Those investigations concluded in late 2022. Burton Police Chief Brian Ross said Christie was away from the department on leave for just over a year after the shooting. He has since returned to work. Fachting returned to duty on Jan. 23, 2023, according to Capt. David Kennamer of the Genesee County Sheriff’s Office. Monroe, who also remains with the department, wasn’t disciplined for shooting his fellow officer. “It was a shootout where officers are making split-second decisions and sometimes friendly fire happens,” Ross said. “He made a decision that he thought was right at the time.”

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