On the evening of July 6, 2022, Detroit Police Officer Loren Courts, 40, and his partner responded to a report of a man with a weapon near Joy Road and Marlowe Street. As their patrol car arrived around 7:30 p.m., a 19-year-old, Ehmani Mack Davis, opened fire from a building window with a 7.62 semi-automatic Draco pistol. Courts was struck while still seated in the vehicle. He and his partner exited to seek cover, but Courts soon collapsed; his partner applied pressure to his wound before additional officers arrived and fatally shot the shooter. Courts was taken to Sinai Grace Hospital and died shortly after arrival.

The shooter was not legally permitted to possess firearms. Investigators say Davis obtained the Draco through an acquaintance, 27-year-old Sheldon Thomas, who admitted to buying the gun and falsely certifying on federal forms that he was the buyer. Thomas later pleaded guilty to making a false statement in the acquisition of a firearm and received a two-year federal prison sentence. Officer Courts had served five years with the Detroit Police Department and is survived by his wife and two children.

Does anyone have information about the events that night or knew Officer Courts and can share details that might help memorialize him?