Reflections Magazine Issue #74 - Spring 2011 | Page 14

Feature Article

By Doug Goodnough
Photography by Jeff Masse

Detroit’s
Top
Cop
Ralph Godbee Jr. ’00, ’06/MA is
Embracing His Role as Detroit
City’s Chief of Police
“Chief Godbee, come over here!”

the woman screamed, her eyes straining
to locate him in a football-like huddle
of uniformed and plain clothes police
officers down the street. It was less than
an hour after police had entered the
two-story house in the shadow of the

Michigan State Fairgrounds in northwest
Detroit. They were executing a search
warrant to look for a violent wanted
suspect. The suspect was not there, but
what they did find in the home was another man wielding a gun who reportedly
did not respond to the officers’ instructions to put down his weapon. The man,
an 84-year-old retired auto worker, was
then shot and wounded by officers.
. . . continued on page 16