Douglas Berry, Michigan Man, Stops Attempted Shooting At Dearborn Police Station With Autistic Son

They might seem to be an unlikely crime-fighting team, but a dynamic father-and-son duo's alertness helped foil a potential tragedy at a Michigan police station this weekend.

Douglas Berry, and his son, Patrick, were waiting for the 6:45 p.m. train to pull into the Dearborn Amtrak station on Saturday. Patrick, who has autism, loves trains, so Berry usually takes him to the station to watch them go by. But that evening, they saw something unusual and called 911.

"I happened to notice a man who was pacing near the gate of the Dearborn Police car lot [adjacent to the train station], staring through the bars and looking at the police," Berry, 58, told the Detroit Free Press. "He went to his car, opened the trunk, got a rifle case, went back to the gate and shimmied underneath."

Berry said that he called 911 twice, and that police stopped the man before he managed to get a shot off. According to the Associated Press, the suspect, who has not been publicly identified, was apprehended after police found him hiding under a car next to a loaded .30 caliber Winchester rifle.

According to police, the suspect had wished to commit suicide by engaging officers in a shootout. No shots were fired in the incident.

“Thanks to an alert citizen getting involved a tragedy was averted,” Dearborn Police Chief Ronald Haddad said in a statement.

Berry told the Detroit News that if it weren't for his son, he wouldn't have been in the right place at the right time.

“The hero of this story is my son and he can’t even talk,” Berry told the newspaper.

The suspect was taken to an area hospital for psychiatric evaluation.