Funeral Mass to be held Friday
By Corey Williams
Associated Press
WEST BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — A police officer who was killed while responding to a 911 call at a troubled financial executive’s home in a wealthy Detroit suburb died of a single gunshot wound to the head, authorities said Tuesday.
Officer Pat O’Rourke, 39, was killed Sunday night inside the house in West Bloomfield Township. Authorities said Ricky Coley, 50, fired on police, killing O’Rourke and precipitating a 20-hour armed standoff that ended Monday with Coley dead in a weapons-strewn bedroom.
The Oakland County medical examiner’s office released the results of O’Rourke’s autopsy on Tuesday. Results from Coley’s autopsy have yet to be made public.
Police have said it isn’t clear if Coley committed suicide. He and his wife had recently divorced and federal authorities filed a lawsuit accusing him of mishandling employees’ insurance funds. O’Rourke and three or four colleagues were responding to a report of a possible suicide attempt or medical emergency when they went to Coley’s home on Sunday, and police said they had been called to his home about a month earlier because he was reportedly suicidal.
After O’Rourke was shot, police surrounded Coley’s home. After an hours-long standoff, during which police and Coley exchanged hundreds of rounds of fire, officers used construction equipment to tear a hole in a second-floor wall then sent in a robot that found Coley’s body.
About 15 families were evacuated from nearby homes.
O’Rourke, a West Bloomfield officer for 12 years, was married and had four children. A vigil for O’Rourke is planned for Tuesday night outside the West Bloomfield Township police station. A funeral Mass is scheduled for Friday.
