On a Sunday evening in November 1978, Detroit Police Officer Scott James Larkins, a male, was ambushed and shot in the back with a shotgun. The incident occurred as he and his partner were leaving a restaurant on East Jefferson Boulevard and walking back to their patrol car. The shots were fired from a second-story window of a nearby hotel. Officer Larkins was 58 years old at the time of the shooting.
The man responsible for the shooting was apprehended two hours later. It was discovered that he had a history of mental illness and held a grudge against police officers stemming from previous commitments to mental institutions. He was subsequently charged with assault with intent to murder. Following legal proceedings, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity and was committed to a state institution.
As a result of the severe injuries he sustained, Officer Larkins medically retired from the Detroit Police Department, where he had served for seven years and was assigned to the Harbormaster Section. For decades, he lived with the consequences of the shooting. On March 9, 2008, nearly thirty years after the ambush, Scott James Larkins succumbed to complications from the gunshot wound.
