Crime & Safety

Crime Report: Man Admits Role in Crime Spree

The following information was supplied by the Canton Township Police Department. It does not indicate a conviction.

A man who said he escaped from a drug treatment center told Canton police he was partially responsible for a crime spree in Canton in January.

Canton police were dispatched Jan. 22 to a home on the 4000 block of Willard Street to check for a home invasion after arresting a man the night before who had four handguns registered to the address, the report said. 

Police awoke the homeowner after noticing the sliding door in the back of the house was opened slightly and a white Ford F-150 in the driveway had an opened glove compartment, items thrown around inside and a pried-off steering column cover, the report said.

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The homeowner was able to identify several guns missing both from the range case at the front door and from a metal gun case.

The man police had arrested the night before, whom they suspected of taking the guns, told police he was a heroin addict who drinks heavily while withdrawing from the drug. He told police he was drunk the night before and doesn’t remember everything that occurred. He then ended the interview, asking for a lawyer. 

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The following day, police responded to a call about the suspect having a seizure in his cell and was asking to go to the hospital, the report said. Police followed the patient to , where he was taken for treatment.

From his hospital bed, the suspect began to tell officers about the incident and asked if they had found all of the guns, then stopped and said he didn’t want to further incriminate himself. Officers told the man to tell them where the other guns are so they don’t end up in the wrong hands and get someone else hurt, the report said.

The man told police there were two rifles another man, with whom he had escaped , had taken from the residence and handed to him. He told police he then took the rifles and set them outside the house near a woodpile. He told police he and the other escapee did the “whole thing” together, and that he never commits crimes by himself.

He told police the windows in his room at Oakdale Recovery Center were equipped with alarms, but he was able to pry the magnet off the window and tape it to the sensor so the Oakdale staff would not know the window was open. He told police when he and the other man escaped, they bought alcohol and had to “hit a lick,” referring to robbing a liquor store.

According to another police report from Jan. 22, officers were dispatched to , 43431 Michigan Ave., for a report of attempted breaking and entering. The cashier at the store told police the previous night, a man whom the report said matched the description of the man in custody came into the store about 10 p.m. and wanted to buy liquor, but did not have identification.

The cashier told police the man, who appeared to be intoxicated, became irate and began swearing, yelling and pounding his fists on the counter. The cashier told police he asked the man to leave, and closed the store at 11 p.m.

Upon returning to the store the next day, the cashier told police he noticed the lights inside the store were shattered and that he found a brick next to a trash can by the front door and that various lights and signs were damaged.

After hitting the liquor store, the man told police he and the other man walked down Willard Street to the first house they encountered. They noticed an all-terrain vehicle with an electrical cord running inside the house to charge its battery, and the sliding door was slightly open. The man told police he entered the house, yelled “hello” and received no response.

The man told police guns were everywhere in the house and that he grabbed a gun case in the living room and found three revolvers and a semiautomatic handgun in the case. He told police he unloaded the gun for fear of accidentally shooting himself, and put the gun in his waistband. He told police he hid the other guns in the sleeves of his jacket . He told police he and the other man went their separate ways and that he set off to sell the guns, which could fetch up to $300 apiece, for drugs.

The man told police he started walking down Michigan Avenue, trying to hitch a ride to Detroit, when he was stopped by a patrol car and was asked to put his hands on the car. The man told police the officer who stopped him was lucky the gun in his waistband was not loaded because he would have pulled it, causing the officer to shoot at him. He told police he wouldn’t want to die with an unloaded gun in his hand.

The officer searched him and found the gun in his waistband, but not in his sleeves, the report said. The man told police that he wanted to avoid getting “two flat,” referring to two years in prison per gun, and tried bringing his cuffed hands to his front  to dump each additional gun under the back seat of the patrol car. According to the report, the officer saw the man moving around in the backseat and was taken to the ground of the police station’s security garage, where the remaining guns were recovered.

Upon returning to the home on Willard Street, police found two additional rifles standing against a trailer outside the homeowner’s residence, accounting for all of the missing guns. There have been no reports of the suspect’s alleged accomplice being found and a description was not made available.

Senior residence tenant accuses another of assault and battery

Police responded to a call at , a senior residential area, where one resident accused another of assault, according to a police report.

The woman told police she took the elevator from the seventh floor down to the main lobby area, where she greeted the woman she accused of attacking her. She said during that time, she noticed a caretaker placing fliers in the mailboxes and told her she should not do that because it is unauthorized solicitation.

The woman told police the other resident took offense and shoved her own walker into her legs, then walked a short distance away to sit in a chair. A few minutes later, the woman told police, the other woman approached her again, telling her she’s not the boss and to mind her own business.

She told police the other woman then rammed her legs seven more times with the walker and then punched her three times in the face.

The other woman told police she confronted the woman about telling the caretaker what to do, but never made any physical contact with the woman. The woman showed police a small bruise on her shin, but police could not find any visible damage to the woman’s face that would indicate an assault. Witnesses also reported to police that the woman was confronted by the alleged attacker, but did not see any signs of a physical assault.

The woman refused medical attention, the report said.

For questions about this blotter, contact john.mckay@patch.com.


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