Robert Allen

Detroit Free Press

Two Detroit police officers were injured in a shooting Sunday night while responding to a home burglary reported on the city's west side.

One officer, shot in the face, is in critical condition; the other appears to have been struck with shrapnel in his left arm after the shooting at about 11:45 p.m. on the 20000 block of Lesure Street, Police Chief James Craig said in a Facebook Live feed this morning. A 19-year-old man was taken into custody, along with his mother and a 14-year-old. Several calls reporting a burglary at the residence had been made earlier Sunday, Craig said.

Craig said it appears the 19-year-old, "fearing for the safety of his family, fired from inside the house... armed with a shotgun, striking the officers."

He said it looks like the man was defending the residents, that one shot was fired from inside and struck the officers, who were in front of the residence.

The critically injured officer has been with the department for two years. The other has been there for about 18 months, Craig said.

This is the second time this year that two Detroit policemen have been shot while on duty. On March 15, two officers were non-fatally injured on the city's west side during a shootout. The injured suspect was arrested after a manhunt.

In 2013 in Dearborn Heights, a civilian, Theodore Wafer, now 58, fatally shot an unarmed, 19-year-old woman with a shotgun through a screen door after he said he was awakened and frightened by a pounding noise. Renisha McBride was drunk and had crashed her car that night. Jurors convicted Wafer of second-degree murder, and an appeal is pending in the case.

Read more about crime:

'White Boy Rick' Richard Wershe to get parole hearing in June

Contact Robert Allen on Twitter @rallenMI or rallen@freepress.com.