Trace Christenson

Battle Creek Enquirer

A 50-year-old man remains a patient at Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo after he was shot by a Calhoun County Sheriff Department sergeant Wednesday in Springfield.

The sheriff department on Thursday released dash camera video showing the pursuit and shooting. Derrick Shirk, a suspect in a weekend armed robbery of a Bedford Township gas station, pointed an airsoft gun at a sergeant with the sheriff department and was shot and wounded in a driveway on 30th Street, police said.

Shirk was struck once in the abdomen, deputies confirmed Thursday, and is being treated at the hospital. Investigators at the scene Wednesday believed Shirk was hit twice but later determined he was turned sideways and one injury was the entrance wound and the other an exit wound.

Police said the sergeant, whose name has not been released by the department, fired as many as 14 times as Shirk moved between the corner of an unattached garage and the rear of the house at 328 N. 30th St. where he is believed to have been living with the female owner of the property.

Video of the shooting shows the sergeant following Shirk's pickup truck into the driveway and Shirk immediately running into a side door of the garage. The sergeant first runs toward the garage but as Shirk disappears he retreats to take cover behind his patrol vehicle.

When Shirk emerges from the garage holding the black handgun modeled after a semi-automatic weapon, the sergeant begins shouting for him to drop the gun before firing his service weapon.

The sergeant continues to shout at Shirk to drop the gun before Shirk is finally shot and falls to the ground near the front passenger portion of his pickup truck.

The sergeant then advances toward Shirk as another deputy who had arrived at the scene approaches from the north side of the property.

Several Battle Creek officers also arrived moments after the shooting.

Sheriff Matt Saxton said Wednesday the sergeant attempted to stop the truck because of information that the driver might be the man who robbed the Citgo gas station at 2410 W. Michigan Ave. in Bedford Township on Sunday morning.

That robber fled with some cash after displaying a handgun, which the clerk told police might not have been a real weapon. A customer gave police a description of the pickup truck used by the robber to flee from the area.

Battle Creek police said they obtained a search warrant for the vehicle, the garage and the house at the scene of the shooting on 30th Street and that some evidence was collected which may tie Shirk to the Sunday robbery.

Police also are conferring with officers from the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi Tribal Police about a gas station armed robbery in Athens at 3:02 a.m. Tuesday. But both Battle Creek officers and tribal police said they have not linked Shirk with that robbery.

Battle Creek Police Department detectives, who are investigating the shooting, said Thursday they don't expect to attempt to interview Shirk until at least Friday afternoon but more likely on Monday.

Contact Trace Christenson at 966-0685 or tchrist@battlecreekenquirer.com. Follow him on Twitter: @TSChristenson