Attorney general files no charges in the January Ypsilanti shooting of John Jenuwine

LANSING — The Michigan attorney general will not charge the Washtenaw County sheriff’s deputies who shot and killed John Jenuwine in Ypsilanti on Jan. 6.

The Nov. 5 release said Jenuwine was 34 and from China Township. Michigan State Police investigated. The Washtenaw County prosecutor’s office referred the case. Attorneys reviewed police reports, 911 calls, dispatch audio, body-camera and in-car video, the medical examiner’s report, and the sheriff’s use-of-force and pursuit policies. The department said it did not review civil lawsuits. Criminal and civil standards are different, the release said, and this review was only for criminal law.

The release said deputies had been told that callers described a white construction van driven erratically, and that one caller reported the driver brandished a weapon. The office concluded that the belief a gun was present, and that lives were in danger, was not unreasonable on the facts the deputies had. It said Michigan law allows for officers who are mistaken about a firearm and about the degree of danger. It said the lethal force fit that belief of self-defense and defense of other officers. The redacted report posted with the release says evidence technicians found no firearm in the van, and that the chase ended on Prospect Street near Towner Street after a PIT maneuver rolled the van. Shots followed shouts of a gun. Those details are in the report the department linked, not in a secondhand retelling.

What “no charges” means here

No charges means the attorney general declined to authorize a criminal case. It does not mean the office called the death anything but a death, and the release calls the review a review of a fatal shooting. The report’s recommendation uses the word tragic for a mistaken belief. The deputies named in that recommendation are Jacob Cuso, Gabriel Bechtol, and Von Heath. Naming them is not a finding of guilt. The finding in the release is the opposite of a charge.

What the photo is

The release is dated Nov. 5. The shooting was Jan. 6. The gap is the investigation, not a new incident. China Township is in St. Clair County. The death was in Ypsilanti. The decision was announced in Lansing. Those are three different places, and only the release’s dateline and the report’s street belong in a headline. No court date exists because no charge was authorized.

The picture is a Lansing justice building, because the decision came from the attorney general in Lansing. It does not show Prospect Street, the van, or the deputies. Ypsilanti is the city where the report says the stop ended.

Sources:
Michigan Department of Attorney General release, Nov. 5, 2026, https://www.michigan.gov/ag/news/press-releases/2026/11/05/ag-concludes-review-of-fatal-january-2026-ypsilanti-shooting-by-washtenaw-county-sheriffs-office
Redacted attorney general report on the Jan. 6, 2026 shooting (no firearm found, Prospect Street, deputies named in the recommendation), https://www.michigan.gov/ag/-/media/Project/Websites/AG/releases/2026/October/WDM-Cuso-Bechtol-and-Heath-REDACTED.pdf
Photo: Tony Webster, “Michigan Hall of Justice - Michigan Supreme Court - Lansing.jpg”, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AMichigan_Hall_of_Justice_-_Michigan_Supreme_Court_-_Lansing.jpg

Michigan

Tags: Michigan · Attorney General · Ypsilanti · Washtenaw County · State Police