Divorce-Related Stress May Have Played A Role In Police Stand-Offs
The marital issues that lead to divorce can become intense. Couples may argue, bicker, and even get into physical fights. Although many couples would prefer to avoid it, an expert in Jackson, Mich., encourages those in abusive relationships to end their marriages. This week, altercations between married couples led to serious run-ins with the police. In analyzing these two events, one begins to see the potential consequences of stress related to divorce.
A Strange Standoff In Redford
The first incident occurred in Redford Township (near Detroit) on June 11. A married couple had been fighting after the wife had said she wanted a divorce. The couple had only been married for six days. It is assumed that this was the issue that provoked the quarreling couple into violence, causing them to break the glass door of their house. The wife told the police that her husband had tried to stab her.
The police arrived on the scene and took the appropriate measures to subdue what they assumed to be a violent husband. They fired tear gas into the house and sent a robot in to locate the man. However, the robot showed that the man was not in the house at all; he had left after the fight with his wife. The standoff between the police and the empty house lasted 11 hours, during which the man’s neighborhood was blocked off.
West Michigan Man Vs. The Cops
A similar conflict erupted in West Michigan as well. This incident, however, was quite intense. The police eventually arrested a man after an armed standoff that lasted over 15 hours.
The man was apparently in the midst of a divorce. On June 15, a detective approached him at his residence near Lake Michigan, somewhere between Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo. The investigator was looking into threats that the man had made towards an Allegan County judge. This, allegedly, made man irate, causing him to grab a loaded gun. He then fired a shot towards the investigator.
The shooting began in the afternoon and spanned 15 hours, wherein the man let off six rounds of gunfire. A bomb squad and a helicopter were called in for backup after larger threats were suspected. The man didn’t surrender until he was able to talk to one of his friends, a sheriff’s deputy in Van Buren County. After doing so, he turned himself in. Thankfully, nobody was physically harmed during the event.
Why Did They Do It?
The man’s family says that he makes his own explosives and ammunition. One may see this as a harbinger when combining this allegation with the stress associated with divorce. Whether or not the altercation between the man and police was due to divorce is unclear.
The case of the unidentified man in Redford seems more closely related to divorce. By his wife’s account, the man took an argument too far and fled before the cops arrived. Each man, however, was dealing with divorce and the intense emotions that it can incite. Some people can handle the heaviness of a legal separation, and others cannot.
DesOrmeau, T. (2016, June 16). Couples Invited To Free Event Celebrating ‘The Marathon’ Of Marriage. MLive. Retrieved on June 17, 2016, from http://www.mlive.com/news/jackson/index.ssf/2016/06/couples_married_50-plus_years.html
Monacelli, N. (2016, June 11). Barricaded Situation Ends After 11-Hour Standoff With Empty Redford Home. Click On Detroit. Retrieved on June 17, 2016, from http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/standoff-continues-with-man-barricaded-in-redford-home
(2016, June 14). Man Arrested After Nearly 15-Hour Standoff In Van Buren County. MLive. Retrieved on June 17, 2016, from http://woodtv.com/2016/06/14/van-buren-co-authorities-in-standoff-with-armed-man/
