BLUE LAKE TOWNSHIP — The spot along a road in Muskegon County's Blue Lake Township where Jonathan Jurecki was shot and killed by a Michigan State Police trooper on May 25 is still littered with pepper bullets — small orange and black projectiles holding pepper spray.
More than two weeks after the shooting, state police have released few details about what led them to shoot Jurecki, who had told them he had a bomb.
State police are now saying they tried less-than-lethal force during the nearly four-hour standoff with Jurecki, who they say had a device with wires coming out of it.
They fired pepper bullets, which explode on contact and release pepper spray. Target 8 found more than a dozen in the ditch where Jurecki died, including some that were still intact.
But state police are releasing few other details, including what prompted the trooper to shoot him.
Troopers from the Hart Post were called to the area of Skeels and Nichols roads after reports that the 44-year-old man who lived nearby was acting erratically.
State police said he ran into the woods and came out with what he claimed was a bomb, threatening to kill everybody. Troopers called in the bomb squad and the Emergency Services Team.
After about four hours of roadside negotiations, and after evacuating neighbors, a member of the Emergency Services Team shot Jurecki with a rifle.
His death certificate shows he died immediately of a single gunshot wound to the head. It labeled the death a homicide.
Several hours later, the state police said only that a "perceived threat" led the trooper to open fire. They wouldn't elaborate that night, and still won't.
That night, they also refused to say whether Jurecki was carrying a gun. Now, they're saying he was not.
They later learned the bomb was a fake.
There has been no public outcry from Jurecki's family. One relative called him dangerous while another said only that police did their job.
His criminal history includes fleeing police and third-offense drunk driving. He was sentenced to two to 10 years for the drunk driving conviction and was released from prison in March 2023.
Investigators from the state police's Fifth District in Paw Paw are investigating and will turn over their findings to the state Attorney General to determine if the shooting was justified.