EATON COUNTY, Mich. – Local 4 Defenders obtained a recording of the 911 call that led to a deadly confrontation Tuesday in the Lansing area between a sheriff’s deputy and a man armed with a knife.
The armed man is accused of stabbing a customer at a Quality Dairy store in Dimondale during an argument over wearing a mask. The suspect was later shot and killed when officials said he pulled his knife on a deputy.
READ: Deputy fatally shoots Michigan man wanted for stabbing customer during mask argument
Police said the man who was killed had been refused service at the store earlier Tuesday morning for not wearing a mask and stabbed a 77-year-old customer during the dispute.
The 911 call was made by the Quality Dairy clerk who was afraid the man would come after her next.
“A customer just stabbed another customer over a mask and then took off out of the parking lot,” the clerk told 911.
The clerk was calm and she was able to provide key details to the dispatcher after 43-year-old Sean Ruis stabbed someone after being asked to wear a mask.
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An Eaton County Sheriff’s deputy found Ruis and initiate a traffic stop. Police body camera footage and home security video captured Ruis approaching the deputy with a knife.
The deputy, a 22-year veteran of the Eaton County Sheriff’s Office, opened fire, killing him.
Back at the store, the focus was on the man who had been stabbed. The clerk told dispatch the man was stabbed in the neck repeatedly. Dispatch told the clerk to get a “clean dry cloth and put it over the wounds.”
“Try to keep him comfortable,” the dispatcher said. “Don’t let anyone touch anything. They are going to want to see the videotape, all that good stuff, OK?”
Ruis died at the hospital. The victim is still being treated for his injuries.