When Ann Arbor police officer David Ried fatally shot 40-year-old Aura Rosser as she came at him with a knife last November, it wasn't the first time he had been confronted by someone wielding a potentially deadly weapon.

Adam Harris

About a month earlier, a 37-year-old man charged him with a sword. Ried stopped short of using lethal force in that encounter when the man, identified in a police report as Adam Harris, dropped the weapon, but it was a close call.

"I perceived Harris as a deadly threat and believed my life was in danger," Ried wrote in a report on the incident. "I began to squeeze the trigger of my firearm as Harris was now within 10-15 feet from me. Just before I was going to fire my handgun, I observed the sword was no longer (in) Harris' hands and he was going to the ground in a prone position."

Ried put it more conversationally with a fellow officer right after it happened.

"It was one more step and he was gone," Ried is heard telling a fellow officer on a recording of his body mic after the arrest. "I had my finger on the trigger."

The incident involving the sword came to light through documents recently obtained via an Ann Arbor News Freedom of Information Act request. As discussion continues in Ann Arbor and across the nation about officer shootings of civilians, it provides insight into a situation in which an officer had to make a split-second decision that could have been the difference between life or death. Ann Arbor police Chief John Seto said officers confront such challenges on a daily basis.

"No two encounters between an officer and citizen are identical," he said. "There may be similarities, but many other differences will develop in rapidly evolving situations. One significant factor is what action is taken by the citizen upon being confronted by the officer."

The Ann Arbor News requested an interview with Ried, but Seto declined.

'Jumping around like a ninja'

Officers Ried and James Burton had just served a subpoena and were on patrol the night of Sept. 29 near Traver and Pear streets in Ann Arbor when they observed Harris attack a man named George Wright with a sword, according to the police report.

In an interview with police, Wright said he and Harris were going to stay the night at Harris' friend's house on Traver Street. When they arrived, Harris told Wright to stay outside while he went in to speak with his friends, according to the report.

Wright said he was about to leave because he didn't think it was "a good situation," the report says. Harris came out of the house, however, and was "jumping around like a ninja, yelling gibberish or another language at him," Wright told police.

They began to physically struggle with one another until Harris "pulled out a sword and started slashing the sword at him," Wright also told police.

David Ried

Police pulled up just as the sword attack began, Wright said.

Harris charged Ried when the officer tried intervening in an altercation between Harris and another man, the report indicates. But then Harris ditched the sword and got down on the ground, the report says.

He was quickly arrested and placed in the backseat of the patrol car.

Police confiscated two drug pipes, a sword about 20 inches long with a wooden handle and a sheath for the sword.

Audio from Ried's body microphone suggests the veteran officer was quite shaken up after the incident. He says he'd only been that close to using lethal force one other time in his career.

Ried tells Harris just how close he came to pulling the trigger. Harris seems to not have much recollection of what happened when he is in the back of the police car, according to a video also obtained via FOIA.

All videos and audio have been edited for length.

"You realize you almost got shot tonight, right?" Ried tells Harris in the video.

"Did I?" Harris asks.

"You came at me," Ried says.

"Did I really?"

Harris eventually pleaded no contest to charges of assault with a dangerous weapon and resisting arrest. He was recently sentenced in the Washtenaw County Trial Court to one to four years in prison.



A fatal encounter

A little more than a month later, Ried found himself in an eerily similar situation.

Aura Rosser

But this time the suspect did not stop and drop the weapon, prompting Ried to be the first Ann Arbor police officer to fatally shoot a suspect inside the city limits in decades. In fact, there have been

only two such instances

since 1976.

The shooting subsequently sparked protests, an inquiry by the American Civil Liberties Union and diversity training for Ann Arbor police officers.

As protests over police killings of civilians have continued across the country following the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, that of Eric Garner in New York, and, over the weekend, the fatal shooting of unarmed 19-year-old Tony Robinson in Madison, Wisconsin, protesters in Ann Arbor have tried to keep Rosser's death in the forefront of community consciousness. Protesters temporarily shut down an Ann Arbor City Council meeting last Monday.

The confrontation with Rosser started when Ried and Mark Raab were called to 2083 Winewood in Ann Arbor after Rosser's ex-boyfriend, 54-year-old Victor Stephens, called 911 just before midnight Nov. 9, saying she was attacking him with a knife.

Rosser immediately came at the two officers with a knife as they entered the door, according to statements and interviews with the officers and Stephens.

Raab fired his Taser at the woman. Ried shot one round at her.

"I feared my life and the life of Ofc. Raab," Ried wrote in a statement. "I believed we were in imminent danger. I was in fear for myself and Ofc. Raab, so I discharged my firearm one time (to) stop the threat."

Washtenaw County Prosecutor Brian Mackie said the killing was justified and declined to pursue any criminal charges.

Seto says officers routinely make hard choices, but he stands behind them all.

"I am proud of the manner in which our officers make difficult, sometimes split second decisions on a regular basis," he said.

Ried, a 15-year veteran of the department has previously been honored in the law enforcement community. He was given a lifesaving award at a police ceremony in June along with two other Ann Arbor officers for rescuing a 60-year-old woman from a burning building. He was also one of the first officers to arrive at Rush Street following a shooting at the nightclub in October 2013, according to previous reports in The Ann Arbor News.

Ried had three "unsustained" citizen complaints made against him since 2012. Only sustained complaints older than three years are kept on record and Ried had none, according to police.

Ried is now back on duty after having been on paid administrative leave starting Nov. 9.

John Counts covers crime and breaking news for The Ann Arbor News. He can be reached at johncounts@mlive.com or you can follow him on Twitter. Find all Washtenaw County crime stories here.