In the early morning hours of Saturday, October 16, 1976, off-duty Detroit Police Lieutenant Johnnie Shoates was waiting in line at a Church’s Chicken at 12701 Joy Road when a man entered and announced a robbery. Lieutenant Shoates identified himself as a police officer and ordered the man to drop his weapon. The armed man turned and fired, striking Shoates in the head with a single gunshot that left him in a coma.

Shoates remained comatose for ten years and ultimately died as a direct result of that injury. He had served with the Detroit Police Department for eight years and was survived by his wife and three children; his wife gave birth to their daughter eleven days after the shooting. The shooter was apprehended, charged with assault with intent to commit murder, and sentenced to 20 to 30 years in prison; he was later paroled in 1985.

Does anyone have memories of Lieutenant Shoates or of the Church’s Chicken location on Joy Road from that era that could add context to this case?