Shae Ward, 38, is having a hard time believing reports that her older sister confronted an Ann Arbor police officer with a knife before he shot and killed her Sunday night.
Aura Rosser
"She would have fainted at the sight of the gun being drawn on her," Ward speculated about her sister, 40-year-old Aura Rosser. "She would have been extremely docile, no aggression whatsoever towards police."
Ward, of Detroit, says she never saw the possibility of that kind of aggression in her sister's character.
"She was very artistic," she said. "She was deeply into painting with oils and acrylics. She's a culture-type of gal. She was a really sweet girl. Wild. Outgoing. Articulate."
The Michigan State Police are still investigating exactly what happened when two officers were called to the 2000 block of Winewood of Ann Arbor around 11:45 p.m. Sunday for a domestic disturbance. Police say Rosser "confronted" the officer with a knife, prompting him to use deadly force to stop her.
First Lt. Sean Furlong, who is in charge of the investigation, said on Wednesday that there was no new information to release.
"We're still waiting on the reports from the medical examiner," he said, referring to the autopsy and toxicology reports.
In the meantime, Ward and the rest of Rosser's family are mourning a woman best remembered for her love of art and cooking.
Rosser was born in the Lansing area, but graduated from Cass Technical High School in Detroit in 1992, Ward said.
She subsequently worked as a restaurant business manager in Detroit, Lansing and Okemos.
Ward admitted her sister fell into a trap of drug addiction starting in the 2000s, specifically cocaine, and had run-ins with the law as a result of it, including convictions for shoplifting and using a stolen credit card. Ward also said Rosser, who is survived by two sons and one daughter, made some bad decisions when it came to boyfriends.
But Rosser was trying to put her legal troubles and drug addiction behind her. She moved to Ann Arbor from Detroit about a year ago for that reason.
Rosser had moved to Ann Arbor to be close to good rehab facilities, Ward said.
"Ann Arbor was always her home base. She fell in love with it years ago," Ward said. "With the right help, I'm 100 percent she would have been able to get back."
Rosser was living at the home on Winewood with 54-year-old Victor Stephens, who's also had run-ins with the law in his past.
The two were fighting Sunday night when Stephens called the police. Ward said that police were frequently called to the house and should have known Rosser was not a threat.
Ward speculates that since Stephens has identified the knife as a "fish knife," and that her sister was in the kitchen before being shot in the hallway, that Rosser may have been cooking.
Rosser would cook when she was upset, according to Ward.
"I assumed that she was cooking seafood," said Ward, who wasn't present the night of the shooting.
Police have not released many details of the incident beyond the officers being called to the house and confronted by Rosser, who had a knife. Furlong would not comment on the type of knife it was believed to be.
Ward wonders why the officers couldn't have used a Taser, or some other non-lethal weapon.
Furlong also couldn't comment on whether or not the officers were armed with Tasers.
Both Ann Arbor police officers who responded to the house that night have been placed on paid administrative leave. The last known incident of an Ann Arbor police officer using lethal force was in 1976.
Rosser's funeral is not yet planned, but relatives have been coming together the last couple days, Ward said. Rosser's mother was en route to Detroit from another state Wednesday, she added.
John Counts covers crime and breaking news for The Ann Arbor News. He can be reached at johncounts@mlive.com or you can follow him on Twitter. Find all Washtenaw County crime stories here.