Kevin Matthews was shot to death during a struggle with an officer who had chased him along the Dearborn-Detroit border around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2015, according to Dearborn police.

DETROIT - Despite the passage of nearly two years, the completion of multiple investigations and an early promise of transparency, information has remained difficult to obtain in the aftermath of two fatal, officer-involved shootings of mentally ill people who ran from Dearborn police.

The officers who shot 35-year-old Kevin Matthews on Dec. 23, 2015 and 31-year-old Janet Wilson on Jan. 27, 2016 were not charged with any crimes.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, after nearly a year of review, found that both shootings were justified in December 2016.

But the disappearance of dashcam video footage in the Matthews case remained a mystery, with the police chief and elected officials in Dearborn refusing to talk while facing two lawsuits over the shootings.

Dearborn police, presumably, conducted internal investigations of their own, but the city denied Freedom of Information Act requests for the results of those investigations.

"We're in litigation on this case, separate and apart from your FOIA," said Laurie M. Ellerbrake, an attorney who advises the city and is also representing it in both multi-million-dollar civil lawsuits resulting from the shootings. "So that's why we all have to tread carefully, because I don't want it to impact the litigation that's pending."

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In the written FOIA denial, the city didn't mention the lawsuits, but instead claimed release of the investigation and related records would violate the officers' privacy rights.

MLive revised and narrowed its request to include only the summary findings of the internal investigation. That request was also denied. Dearborn's response said it didn't have any records that "meet the criteria set forth in your request."

Dearborn Police Chief Ronald Haddad pledged after each of the shootings that the city would be transparent with investigators and "make public disclosures" when the time was appropriate.

Documents obtained by MLive in a series of Freedom of Information Act inquiries over several months show that Dearborn police withheld information from investigators, failing to explain inconsistencies regarding the lost video.

Officials may ultimately be forced to answer questions about the cases in court.

The discovery cutoff in the Matthews lawsuit is set for April 3, 2018. While the lawsuit filed by Wilson's estate is in mediation, if a settlement isn't reached, a trial is scheduled for April 24, 2018.

Dearborn's police chief is listed as a potential witness in both cases.

After the second shooting, the U.S. Department of Justice intervened and offered use-of-force training to the Dearborn Police Department.

Missing video footage

It took a year and eight months for Dearborn officials to publicly offer any explanation for the vanished dashcam video associated with the Matthews shooting. The explanation came in records released in response to another FOIA request from MLive.

The missing dashcam video was ultimately linked by Dearborn police to an alleged fleet-wide wiring problem. Dearborn police never reported to the prosecutor's office that it was the wiring problem that potentially damaged the video, according to assistant prosecutor and spokeswoman Maria Miller.

After extensive efforts, the prosecutor's office eventually recovered about 13 seconds of video footage that did not include audio and did not show the shooting, only the beginning of the foot chase that preceded it.

MLive attempted to reach Dearborn Police Cpl. Chris Hampton for comment on the Matthews shooting, as well as the missing audio and dashcam video.

"We don't give comment, dude," said Ed Jacques, a spokesman for the Dearborn police officer's union. "Dude, come on. You know better than that. I don't even know what the incident is. You're on your own, big guy."

MLive asked Hampton's union representative, Kenneth E. Grabowski, if he would pass along to Hampton that MLive was seeking comment. Grabowski wouldn't respond to the question and only said he "had nothing to say."

The recovered footage was of little help to investigators, and prosecutors in December 2016 announced that the probe didn't yield enough evidence to warrant criminal charges.

The same conclusion, announced on the same day, was reached in the Wilson case.

In that case, dashcam footage did capture the fatal shooting, and was released in January 2017.

The video drew a mix of reactions. Law enforcement officials who viewed the shooting saw the officer, Cpl. James Wade, reacting appropriately because he could have been struck by Wilson's vehicle as she sought to flee police outside Fairlane Mall. Police watchdogs called what happened unnecessary, even criminal.

What wasn't released by authorities in Dearborn was video footage of Wade involved in a previous use-of-force incident that was reviewed during the state police investigation of the Wilson shooting.

The officer in December 2014 injured a prisoner who was being booked on a drunken-driving arrest when he forced the man's head against a sign that had a protruding screw.

The police department, the city's legal department and Dearborn City Council, in a vote upon appeal, denied MLive's request for video of the incident.

They cited the prisoner's privacy rights in that denial.

The city did release video from a third use-of-force incident outside Fairlaine Town Center Mall in April 2015, during which it was determined Wade's handling of the incident unnecessarily provoked a potentially deadly encounter.