CAUGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF A SHOOTING

Wednesday night the Ottawa County Sheriff's Department tried to issue a
warrant to the apartment on the floor below mine in Campus View
Apartments.

There was a shooting and the police locked down the building completely,
allowing no one in or out for more than four hours. There was one of those
creepy black vans circling the complex and two police cruisers parked in
front of the entrance to my building with the lights off. There were also
cops stationed out in front of both the exits and the lobby.

They told us nothing and all these rumors started floating around that
added confusion. The longer they kept us locked down, the more unsettling
the whole situation became. Our landlords never showed up either, which I
felt was complete bull. Wouldn't they want to know what was going on with
their building? Don't they care about their tenants? I would expect some
form of communication from them telling us what was going on, but as of
yet there hasn't even been a mass e-mail about that night.

I can't help but feel everyone is acting like it didn't happen. There
would be rounds of questioning as to who heard what later that night. It's
astonishing when you realize how much power the government has over your
life. They can come in and basically take over at any time.

I found out through the news today Derek Copp was unarmed and there was no
confrontation that led to the shooting. The cop who shot him is on a paid
leave, but has not spoken with investigators. This makes no sense to me as
I'm sure it doesn't for anyone else -- how can an investigation even take
place without the officer who shot Copp being questioned?

This sort of aggression is not acceptable and seriously shakes my trust in
the police. The police cannot just use force for the sake of using force.
This isn't a western or "The Matrix." I am baffled by this whole situation
and I don't know what to be more upset about: The shooting itself or the
lack of uproar by the community outside of Grand Valley State University.

Can they really shoot someone without there being any sort of conflict?
They did. Can the police lock down an entire building for four hours
because they shot someone? They can. I keep thinking there has to be more
of an explanation than the cop just snapped, or his finger slipped.

When they came around asking questions, it felt so odd as to how slowly
the Ottawa County police are moving in reprimanding this officer, it makes
me feel as if they're going to try to smooth this whole situation over or
cover it up. Where is the urgency in getting this situation properly taken
care of? It is so unsettling to me the police are not talking about this.

You can barely get anything out of the news media, the parents aren't
talking and the police are highly limiting the information they do give. I
can't help but feel this whole episode is getting brushed under the rug. I
smell an out-of-court settlement and the officer getting no more of a
punishment than early retirement or finishing his career shuffling paper
work at a desk.