Prosecutor: No charges after deputies shot, killed murder suspect

COLDWATER, Mich. (WOOD) — The Branch County Prosecutor’s Office says it will not file charges after a double murder suspect was shot and killed following a police chase in 2023.

The office said Tuesday that deputies were justified in using deadly force against David Algarin Jr., who died Aug. 6, 2023.

“It is the opinion of the Branch County Prosecuting Attorney’s office that the deputies had an honest belief that deadly force was immediately necessary when they discharged their firearms and that their belief was reasonable,” the office said Tuesday in a release. “The actions and conduct by the deputies involved in this situation likely saved the lives of other deputies and the lives of others within our community.”

Algarin, 30, was believed to have killed 38-year-old Stacy Ramsey and 61-year-old Jerry Longacre near Sturgis on Aug. 5, 2023, authorities say.

The next day, a license plate reading camera in Sturgis got a hit on Algarin’s car. Pursuing officers tried to conduct a traffic stop, but Algarin continued driving, heading east toward Bronson, the prosecutor’s office says.

The Branch County Sheriff’s Office tried to deploy stop sticks, but they were unsuccessful, according to the release. Prosecutors say Algarin kept driving into Bronson, then accelerated as he fled police, reaching speeds of 90 mph and repeatedly driving in the wrong lane.

During the chase, the prosecutor’s office says Algarin was speaking with dispatchers and family members on the phone. He said he would not stop and told his family goodbye, saying he would crash into a tree, the release says.

According to the release, officers decided they had to use a tactic known as a PIT maneuver to force Algarin’s vehicle off the road before he crashed into another car or made it to Colon, where a festival was taking place.

A vehicle with three deputies from the St. Joseph County’s Sheriff’s Office was leading the pursuit, according to the prosecutor’s office. Their first attempt at a PIT maneuver didn’t work, but after the second attempt, Algarin’s car spun out into a wheat field, authorities say. After seeing Algarin try to drive away, deputies then rammed the side of his vehicle to immobilize it, according to the prosecutor’s office.

The office says the two deputies in the front seat left the car and told Algarin to show his hands, but the remaining deputy in the back seat saw Algarin raise a handgun toward the other two deputies. The two deputies fired “numerous rounds” at Algarin, according to the release. He died on scene.

An autopsy found the cause of death to be 18 gunshot wounds to the head, neck and torso, though it was not clear which officer shot the fatal rounds, according to the release. It says methamphetamine and THC were also found in Algarin’s blood.

After an investigation from the Michigan State Police, the Branch County Prosecutor’s Office says it has decided the deputies were justified.

“As detailed above, the deputies involved in this situation faced a tense, uncertain, rapidly evolving circumstance,” the release says. “…When judging the circumstances from the perspective of a reasonable officer involved in the incident, it is clear that the deputies involved had a reasonable and honest belief that Algarin posed a significant and immediate threat of death or serious injuries to the deputies and any citizen near Algarin.”

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