HOLLAND (WHTC-AM/FM) — The suspect in a Muskegon County incident traveled to Grand Haven State Park just after 11 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 15, 2019.
As of 12:26 p.m., authorities closed the park to new visitors; as of 12:17 p.m., police had the suspect out of the water.
Initially, police called him a fugitive from a serious crime, according to a press conference that aired on WOOD-TV8
Grand Haven Department of Public Safety Director Jeff Hawke told reporters on the scene (see Grand Haven Tribune’s video) that the man was a suspect in a Twin Lake-area crime. The man shed his clothes, jumped off the south pier and swam “several hundred feet” west into Lake Michigan. But after about 30 minutes in the water, police were able to get him out.
Hawke said there was no danger to the community at that point. Grand Haven Public Safety officers worked with Ottawa County Sheriff’s marine patrol and road deputies; Michigan State Police, U.S. Coast Guard officials from Grand Haven; Michigan DNR State Park officials, and paramedics from North Ottawa Community Hospital.
According to police scanner chatter, the man is a suspect in a fatal shooting in Twin Lakes, and police recovered a weapon that had been thrown from a vehicle.
