Genesee County Sheriff Shoots Fellow Officers While Shooting Wildly

BURTON, MI – One of two police officers injured during a shootout while chasing a suspect through a Burton neighborhood was accidentally wounded by gunfire from another police officer and not the armed suspect, according to police reports and body camera video.

Genesee County Sheriff’s Deputy Brandon Fachting was critically wounded when he was shot twice by Brendan Patrick Pinkston, a suspect Fachting and other officers chased through a neighborhood in Burton in December 2021.

Burton Police Officer Dalton Christie was also seriously wounded when he was shot several times during the pursuit.

“Officer Monroe fired his long gun at what he thought was the suspect who shot Deputy Fachting,” a Genesee County Sheriff’s report reads. “Officer Monroe’s rounds struck Officer Christie, causing injuries to his lower extremities.”

Information from police originally said officers responded to the area of Saginaw Street and Bristol Road in Burton on the afternoon of Dec. 21, 2021.

When the officers arrived at the scene, they spotted Pinkston who ran away from them. While officers chased Pinkston, he attempted to get away from them while climbing a fence.

That fence collapsed on top of Pinkston, pinning him to the ground.

According to what police presented at the time, Christie and Fachting were pulling the fence off the suspect when he opened fire. The officer and deputy returned fire and Pinkston was shot multiple times. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

A police report authored by Capt. Jason Murphy of the Genesee County Sheriff’s Office reviewing the fatal shooting of the suspect – which was listed as justifiable homicide

Genesee County Central Dispatch received a 911 call reporting a white male wearing gray pants and a white shirt had shot a pistol at a house behind the caller’s home.

Fachting, Christie and two other Burton police officers, Cody Monroe, and Farah Glasstetter, responded to the call.

When the officers arrived at the scene, they approached the house in the 2100 block of Bristol Road.

As they walked toward the house, a banging sound can be heard on body camera video from the officers. Then, the officers are alerted by an alarm sound indicating someone was breaking into the home.

According to the sheriff’s office report, Fachting and Monroe chased after Pinkston, who climbed a fence into the backyard of a neighboring home. Fachting found Pinkston in the yard of a Connell Street home, beneath a section of a wooden privacy fence that had fallen on top of him.

When Fachting lifted the fence, Pinkston immediately pointed a handgun at him, firing twice. Fachting returned fire, discharging five rounds from his service weapon. Pinkston was struck by the gunfire and died at the scene.

Fachting was critically injured. He had been shot twice – once above his vest, a shot that entered his chest and exited the right side of his body, and a second time in his magazine pouch.

The second shot penetrated the leather on the magazine pouch, struck the loaded magazine causing damage, then exited the opposite end of the magazine pouch and struck Fachting’s leather duty belt.

Christie, who had been with the Burton Police Department for about one year at the time of the shooting, approached the scene from Connell Street, one house to the east of where the shooting took place. As he approached the scene, Fachting was on the ground and injured. Pinkston was under the wooden privacy fence.

Christie was shot seven times in his lower extremities, according to the sheriff’s report.

While the shots were being fired, Monroe was hopping a fence, running closer to the scene. He opened fire toward another fence with his rifle – a spurt of about 12 rounds. Immediately afterward, a man can be heard yelling expletives.

As the officer approaches, however, Christie can be heard yelling: “Officer hit!”

A mass of police officers surrounded Fachting as he lay on the ground. He grew pale and was bent over backward, his legs bent at the knees under him.

Glasstetter, with her hands on his chest, repeatedly said, “Oh s***, oh s***.”

Another paramedic, deputy Sean Clayton, spoke to the injured deputy.

“Just keep breathing,” he said. “Keep f****** breathing.”

“I think one of my bullets hit Christie,” Monroe said. “There was movement on that side of the fence…”

“I just saw a blur behind the fence, which I thought was the suspect, and I fired around that fence,” he said. “I think one of my bullets hit Christie in the leg.”

An autopsy was conducted on Pinkston the day after the shooting. Christie also been shot seven times.

Those investigations concluded in late 2022.

Monroe, who also remains with the department, wasn’t disciplined for shooting his fellow officer.

“It was a shootout where officers are making split-second decisions and sometimes friendly fire happens,” Ross said. “He made a decision that he thought was right at the time.”