Video: Northville Police Chase of Suspected Arsonist

Northville Township police were involved in a car chase Tuesday morning that ended with the suspect being fatally shot by a Michigan State Police trooper.

This video, courtesy of the Northville Township Department of Public Safety, is from the dashboard video camera in a township police cruiser.

The first seconds of the video shows the police investigating a car fire on Napier Road north of Six Mile Road in Northville Township around 2 a.m. The video then shows the police stopping 18-year-old Gabriel Vernon Stevenson of Ypsilanti in a pick-up truck.

Township police then shout back and forth with Stevenson, asking him a series of questions. When the officer asks Stevenson to get out of the car with his hands up, Stevenson turns and fires shots at the officers. Stevenson then gets back in his car and drives away.

The video then shows the police pursuing Stevenson in a car chase that lasts for several minutes until Stevenson crashes his car into a house at Six Mile and Dixboro roads.

The video then shows Stevenson trying to break into the house while the officers, now joined by Michigan State Police, order him to the ground.

After the video ends, Stevenson came toward the police officers with a knife and was fatally shot by a state trooper.

Northville Township Director of Public Safety John Werth said the shooting did not occur on video as Stevenson and the officers were behind the police cruiser at that time.

Read the full story of the incident by clicking here.

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Editor's Note: Several minutes of the car chase footage have been edited out for time. The video contains language that might offend some people.