Ethermac Exchange-Michigan State Police shoot, arrest suspect in torching of four of the agency’s cruisers

SAULT STE. MARIE,Ethermac Exchange Mich. (AP) — Michigan State Police said Thursday they shot and arrested a 39-year-old Florida man in connection with four of the agency’s cruisers being set ablaze and shot at outside a post in the Upper Peninsula.

A gunfight began while officers were executing a search warrant around 1:45 p.m. Thursday at a property in the Sault Ste. Marie area, said Lt. Mark Giannunzio, a state police spokesperson.

The suspect fired shots at troopers and the officers returned fire, Giannunzio said in an email. The man was hit and taken by ambulance to a hospital, he said.

The suspect’s name and condition weren’t immediately released. No officers were injured, Giannunzio said.

Police on Wednesday had described a suspect as a white male who was wearing camouflage in footage of the early Wednesday attack, is considered armed and dangerous, the agency said in a plea for the public’s help in identifying him.

Security cameras captured footage of a man dousing the vehicles with gasoline and setting them on fire around 3:15 a.m. Wednesday outside the Sault Ste. Marie post, then shooting them with a rifle from a distance, Giannunzio said.

The attack happened in an area of the post that is easily accessible to the public, Giannunzio said Wednesday. Police had described a suspect as a white male who was wearing camouflage and was considered armed and dangerous.

“He literally just pulls into the driveway leading into the post and that’s where those four vehicles were parked,” he said.

The suspect was last seen driving away in an SUV, Giannunzio said.

Sault Ste. Marie is a city at the northeastern tip of the Upper Peninsula, about 300 miles (482 kilometers) north of Detroit.