Worthy to announce charging decision Tuesday in fatal shooting of Detroit officer

Detroit — Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy announced Monday that a charging decision has been made in the fatal shooting of Detroit Police Officer Rasheen McClain.

She said she will announce the decision at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office at the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice.

McClain, 46, was shot to death after responding to a home invasion on Nov. 20 at a residence on Wyoming Avenue.

A 28-year-old man, whom police said was on parole after serving eight years in prison for assault, allegedly ambushed four officers when they ventured down the basement stairs looking for the suspect. 

The gunman lay in wait for the police officers and fired on them with an SKS semi-automatic carbine rifle, police said. McClain was hit in the neck while his partner, Phillippe Batoum-Bisse, was struck in the left ankle. 

McClain's body camera captured the final seconds of his life. He died at Sinai-Grace Hospital, the 228th Detroit police officer killed in the line of duty.

The suspect was shot by police in the arm as he tried to flee, according to Detroit Police Chief James Craig, and was hospitalized. 

McClain and his fellow officer, Batoum-Bisse, arrived at the home near Wyoming and Chippewa around 7:30 p.m., about eight minutes after receiving a call to investigate a report of a home invasion in progress, Craig said.

When the officers pulled up to the home, people told them a man armed with a rifle was hiding inside.

McClain, who was a corporal, is being promoted posthumously to the rank of sergeant and will be buried in full uniform with sergeant's stripes, Craig said Monday.   

bwilliams@detroitnews.com

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Staff Writer George Hunter contributed.