DETROIT – At least 12 people were shot in the first weekend of summer in Detroit.
According to authorities, one person was killed and 11 were injured in seven incidents across the city.
At President Donald Trump’s rally Saturday in Tulsa, the president took aim at Detroit and blamed city officials for the city’s crime rates.
“The murder rate in Baltimore and Detroit is higher than El Salvador, Guatemala or even Afghanistan,” Trump said.
Detroit Police District 5 commissioner Willie Burton has been vocal about defunding certain aspect of the Detroit police since the protests started. He said he wants to see more accountability from city leaders after the president’s national jab at Detroit.
The president appeared to be quoting from the FBI crime database. An analysis done in May ranked Detroit as the second most dangerous city in the country.
According to the Detroit Police Department’s numbers from 2019, homicides went up by 4.5%, while overall crime actually dropped. Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a slowdown in Detroit, which has recently started to level out.
READ: Has the coronavirus pandemic slowed crime rates in Detroit?
“For this to make it to reach the White House, for President Donald Trump speaking out about the failing leadership in Detroit?” Burton asked. “What does that tell you?”
Burton said he doesn’t outright agree with the president’s condemnation of city Democrats, but said Detroit leadership needs to be held accountable.
“My colleagues on the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners are an appendage to the chief of police and the mayor,” Burton said. “Where is the oversight? Where is the transparency?”
Those were some of the questions raised by protesters Saturday during a public tribunal for Detroit leadership. Neither Mayor Mike Duggan or Police Chief James Craig attended.
Duggan said he was not planning on attending the tribunal and that he already knew the likely criticism that would be made against him.
RELATED: Detroit officer suspended, 11 other incidents involving city’s police department under investigation