Victim in stabbing was on phone with his son during attack, family says

Douglas Mielock was on the phone with his son when he was assaulted, and began fighting for his life, as he walked out of an East Lansing barbershop on April 15, said Shelley Davis Boyd, who shares children with Mielock.

Their daughter, 18, was making quick medical decisions and saw Mielock, bloodied and unable to speak, before he went into surgery, Davis Boyd said, during an East Lansing City Council meeting on May 12. 

Mielock was in the ICU for days and he later collapsed at the sight of his son, Davis Boyd said.

“Despite everything, when medically cleared to leave the hospital, their father refused a wheelchair because he wanted our children to know he was not defeated,” she said.

Davis Boyd said she made the difficult decision to speak at the council meeting because she wanted to make sure Mielock was not forgotten as people talked about the person accused of stabbing him.

East Lansing Police officers fatally shot a 21-year-old they have accused in Mielock’s attack.

Davis Boyd said she extended condolences to the other family involved and said her comments were not intended to inflame divisions but to highlight Mielock’s ordeal.

“I want to publicly acknowledge the victim of this attack and the lasting impact it has had on our family,” Davis Boyd said. “Victims of violent crimes and their families should not disappear from the conversation.”

She said Meilock was not involved in a confrontation and committed no crimes when he was attacked from behind while leaving a barbershop, just miles from the family’s home.

Also during the meeting, East Lansing City Manager Robert Bellman shared new information about the planned release of video by the city, which he said was anticipated on Friday.

Bellman said there would be a narrated video as well as “raw” video footage from six body cameras and three vehicles. The “raw” footage, he said, would have some state-mandated redactions like bystander faces and in-car computer screens. The narrated video is expected to include the shooting as well as officers giving aid to both Kirby and Mielock, according to a previous city statement.

East Lansing Police Chief Jennifer Brown said, on April 15, that the original call involved a theft from a business and there was a second 911 call while officers were en route and that call indicated that a man “approached a second business and stabbed a victim multiple times. Upon arrival at the scene East Lansing Police Department officers encountered the suspect who appeared to have blood on his person and have an object in his hand that appeared to be a weapon. The suspect was observed running toward the officers on the scene. Officers ordered the suspect to drop the knife multiple times, but the suspect refused to cooperate. Officers responded to the threat by shooting the suspect.”

Also on Wednesday, the family of Isaiah Kirby released five graphic photos, showing the body of the 21-year-old with blood and apparent bullet holes on top of a white plastic sheet. Karen Kirby, his mother, said she counted 17 holes in his body, which led her to cremate her son.

City Pulse is not publishing the graphic images.

Kirby’s family said, in a statement Wednesday, that they released the images “after careful consideration to help the public understand the extent of his injuries and why they continue to demand truth, transparency, accountability, and justice.”

The release of the photos was inspired, according to Kirby’s family, by the example of Mamie Till-Mobley, who showed the world pictures of her 14-year-old son Emmett Till, who was abducted, tortured and murdered in Mississippi in 1955.

“Ms. Kirby believes that when a mother sees the devastating condition of her child’s body,” according to the statement released from the Kirby family, “there are times when the truth must be seen in order to be fully understood.”