Friends of Grand Valley student Derek Copp, shot by police in Campus View Apartments, accuse officers of overreacting
ALLENDALE TOWNSHIP — Friends of Derek Copp cannot comprehend how he would pose a threat during a police raid of his Campus View apartment late Wednesday, or why a deputy shot and wounded an unarmed Copp.
“Nobody wants to think those in the criminal justice system are shooting unarmed college students,” said Laura Quist, a 19-year-old Grand Valley State University sophomore who lives in an opposite hallway from Copp, 20.
Friends described Copp as an easygoing, guitar-playing young man.
Students today continue to question what happened after five officers with the West Michigan Enforcement Team, a regional drug unit, executed a drug-related search warrant on Copp’s apartment. Copp, a film and video major, was shot in the upper right chest area with a Glock handgun after police came through a back glass slider door.