Washtenaw deputies – In the early hours of January 6, 2026, Washtenaw County deputies chasing a white van in Ypsilanti, Michigan, fired 27 shots at the driver while his vehicle burned—despite a dispatcher being told the vehicle was occupied by “two Black guys” and that a gun had b
When deputies began firing at John Andrew Jenuwine’s van, the decision had already gone wrong—fast, and in ways his family says should never happen.
In the early hours of January 6, 2026, two 911 callers near Ypsilanti, Michigan, reported a white van driving erratically. Within an hour. police found a white van and. according to the account described by Jenuwine’s family and attorneys. crashed into it twice on purpose before firing 27 shots at the driver while the vehicle lay on its side. burning. At least eight officers watched as the 34-year-old Navy veteran bled out and died inside.
The details of the dispatch call are what makes the family’s outrage cut deeper. The only physical description provided to the dispatcher was that “two Black guys” were driving the van. and a caller said they’d brandished a handgun at his wife. Jenuwine was white, driving alone, and unarmed. No gun was ever found in his van, his family says.
John Jenuwine said that when the family reached deputies the following evening—17 hours after the killing—they were told a very different story.
“We were told that there was an exchange of gunfire, and that John was killed,” John’s father, Larry Jenuwine, said. “Call it naïveté or whatever you want to call it, but our first thoughts were, ‘Oh my God, what did he do, why did he cause this?’”
His mother. Kelly Jenuwine. described a deputy from the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office claiming their recently deceased son had a gun. But in the family’s telling. the man deputies killed was an industrial field engineer traveling to repair million-dollar lasers—carrying work equipment. not a weapon.
Their lawsuit now targets the department’s response, including what it calls policy violations. The Jenuwine family is suing Washtenaw County and eight sheriff’s deputies who responded to the case for wrongful death; for violating John’s constitutional rights to protection under the law and against unreasonable searches and seizures; and for gross negligence and willful misconduct. including improper use of deadly force. The suit seeks to hold the county responsible for what it calls the sheriff’s failures to train officers and enforce its policies.
“Come to find out, he didn’t do anything to cause any of this,” Larry said. “He was not the guy that they were supposed to be chasing.”
The family’s account also centers on the seconds and minutes after the shots.
Less than 15 minutes elapsed between the time Washtenaw County Sheriff’s deputies incorrectly identified Jenuwine’s van and when they started shooting. Officers fired their first shots seconds after causing Jenuwine’s vehicle to flip on its side and catch fire. Only seven out of the 27 shots fired hit Jenuwine. None of those hits. according to an independent autopsy obtained by Jenuwine’s family and described by their attorneys in a press conference last week. was alone responsible for killing him—he bled out and died over time.
While Jenuwine struggled and died. dashcam footage shared with The Intercept. as described in the family’s reporting. captured officers outside discussing whether any of the shots had hit him. After several minutes passed. one officer said over the radio. “He’s kicking around inside the vehicle right now.” None of them called for emergency services.
According to the footage, an edited version of which was viewed by The Intercept, Jenuwine lay dying in the van for at least five minutes.
“The cruelty of it, I suppose, is what strikes me the most,” said Maura Battersby, one of the attorneys representing the family. “If aid had been rendered, he may have survived this.”
Attorneys also described how, during the confrontation, officers were not simply acting in isolation: at least eight cops watched as he bled out and died inside.
Of the four deputies attorneys said fired shots, two names have been publicly released: Jacob Gombos and Jonathan Early. Both received awards in 2024 for distinguished service. Gombos received the department’s Life Saving Award.
After the incident. the sheriff’s office placed Gombos. Earley. and other deputies involved on paid administrative leave pending an investigation by Michigan State Police. That investigation was completed last month and is now pending review by the Michigan attorney general. The attorney general will decide whether to bring criminal charges against any of the officers in the case. A spokesperson for Michigan State Police confirmed the investigation was closed and referred questions to the attorney general’s office. which did not respond to a request for comment. The Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office and the Ypsilanti Police Department did not respond to requests for comment.
The killing has intensified scrutiny of the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office, which is already facing other legal battles.
The office is currently facing dual lawsuits from whistleblowers who claimed the department hired unqualified officers and fired them in retaliation for reporting it. Both plaintiffs are former office staff who said they were fired after raising concerns that Sheriff Alyshia Dyer and other staff pushed them to hire candidates who had lied about their qualifications—and in one case had an “extensive” criminal history. Another sheriff’s deputy resigned in March while under investigation for allegedly having a sexual relationship with a subordinate officer. Dyer herself was independently investigated last year after a partially burned cannabis cigarette was found in her county-issued vehicle; she denied it was hers. and an independent report could not determine whether the joint belonged to her.
“It seems like every day we hear something about the Washtenaw Sheriff’s department,” Kelly Jenuwine said. “They are in the news constantly, and it’s not for a good reason.”
For the family, the broader issue is how police reforms are working—or not—when speed and force collide with the risk of getting it wrong.
Jenuwine’s killing has brought renewed questions about the efficacy of police reform. In 2024. Michigan implemented new statewide guidelines restricting vehicle pursuits to “protect the lives of innocent bystanders.” After the police killing of George Floyd in 2020. the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s office released a memo outlining how its policies aligned with proposed reforms pushed by activists against police violence that grew out of 2014 protests in Ferguson. Missouri. In 2022. the sheriff’s office adopted a new use of force policy that classifies intentional vehicle collisions—known as a “PIT” maneuver. a precision immobilization technique—as deadly force.
That is part of the controversy at the heart of the suit. Todd Flood, the lead attorney on the Jenuwines’ case, said the maneuver is “something you’re trained not to do.”
The policy also directs officers to “seek voluntary compliance and operate with minimal reliance on the use of force. ” using techniques in crisis intervention and “rapport-building communication. ” and trying to de-escalate even after using force. It requires a mandatory medical evaluation when deadly force is applied. if an officer observes an injury. or if they believe one has occurred. The policy also ties the degree of appropriate force to how certain they are that the subject committed a crime. In the policy’s words, “Sheriff’s Office employees shall never employ excessive force.”.
But Battersby said officers did not verbally engage with Jenuwine “a single time.”
“I would have expected them to be calling out over the loudspeaker,” Battersby said. “There were many instances in which they were in close proximity to him, and it doesn’t appear that they did that.”
At a press conference after the shooting. the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office played a dashcam video showing Jenuwine reversing his van and driving on the wrong side of the road. Before the sheriffs hit Jenuwine’s van in the first PIT maneuver. the dashcam video cuts ahead. with the video timestamp jumping forward 30 seconds.
The Jenuwines say the experience has changed how they view law enforcement.
They had previously considered themselves generally supportive of police. Now, they describe what they call an “execution” and say it has reshaped their expectations of accountability.
“I want the people that executed my son to never have the opportunity to work in law enforcement again,” said Kelly.
Larry described the dashcam footage in the terms that still haunt him.
“They ran around with those guns like they were playing video games, guns held sideways,” he said. “I’m still struggling with this and I anticipate that’s going to be a continuing struggle.”
He said he believes the vast majority of police are “good, honest, hard-working people.” But he does not believe the officers who shot his son are among them.
“I don’t believe these guys that were involved in this shooting were,” Larry said. “And that’s the kind of people we need to get out of that system.”
“We want to make sure that the people involved in this, in John’s death, are held accountable,” he said. “We’re hoping that there will be criminal charges as well, but we can’t count on that.”
Jenuwine, his parents said, liked spending his time outdoors fishing and hunting with his family. He was on his high school football team, served six years in the Navy, and was a member of a Detroit motorcycle club. When he was growing up, he and Larry worked on cars and tractors together.
On what would have been his 35th birthday last month, his parents said they spent the evening crying over a birthday cake.
“Those officers get to go home to their families every night,” Kelly said. “What Larry and I get, we get a box of ashes and a lock of my son’s hair.”
John Andrew Jenuwine Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office Michigan State Police attorney general wrongful death lawsuit PIT maneuver police reform 911 call dashcam George Floyd reforms Alyshia Dyer
27 shots?? That’s insane.
I don’t get how they could already be told it was “two Black guys” and still just start unloading. Like wouldn’t that make them more cautious? Sounds like they messed up and then everyone just stood there.
Wait so they chased the wrong van and then sat there while he died? I thought police had to do first aid or something. Also “crashed into it twice on purpose” sounds like some movie level stuff, not real life. Probably more to it though.
This is why I don’t trust cops at all. If they heard “two Black guys” and still did all that firing, that’s just automatic bias. I’m guessing he was probably trying to get away and then they decided he was a threat instantly, then he couldn’t even help himself. Sad either way, and honestly it’s always the same with these calls.