UNION TOWNSHIP, MI (WTVB) – The Michigan State Police has officially released the identity of the suspect who died in Wednesday’s violent incident in Union Township in which two State Police members were shot.
According to a State Police press release, the suspect has been identified as 62-year-old David Kidney of Union City.
State Police Lt. Dale Hinz reports personnel from the Marshall Post were executing a search warrant related to the Duane Finney cold case murder investigation at a residence on Francisco Road near Arborgast Road south of Union City when they came under fire from Kidney.
The officers were attempting to take cover when Detective Sgt. Aaron Steensma was shot in the chest and Trooper Daniel Thayer was shot in the chest and hand.
The round that struck Thayer in the chest was stopped by his ballistic vest. All State Police personnel were wearing body armor at the time of the incident.
An autopsy was conducted on Kidney Thursday morning in Grand Rapids. The preliminary results show Kidney’s cause of death to be a single gunshot wound that was sustained while exchanging gunfire with troopers.
Steensma remains in serious but stable condition today at Borgess Medical Center in Kalamazoo.
No further details are available for release at this time, as the investigation is still ongoing.
It’s still not clear what kind of role Kidney had in connection with the Finney investigation.
Finney was murdered in May of 2009. It was considered a cold case as last March and the State Police have been assisting the Branch County Sheriff’s Department since that time.
Finney’s body was found in his car shot to death, not far from where he lived.
His car came to rest in a field about 500 feet from a rental storage unit parking lot near the Skate Ranch, just south of the Coldwater city limits.
