Harper Woods, Pointes Police Catch Carjackers

Officers from four local police departments worked together early Monday to arrest two men for attempted carjacking after Harper Woods police received a 911 call from the victims who were shot near 8 Mile and Gratiot roads after refusing to give up their car.

They had been driving on Gratiot Avenue near 8 Mile about 1:30 a.m. when they were approached by a man armed with an assault type weapon demanding their car, Harper Woods Police Chief Jim Burke said. They were stopped at a red light. When they refused to give it to him, he shot both of them, he said.  

They called 911 from a cell phone, which picked up the nearest tour and routed their emergency call to Harper Woods Police.

The dispatcher, Rose Schroeder, told the couple to continue driving and urged them to drive to the police station, giving them directions over the phone while also dispatching officers for the incoming victims and would-be carjackers who were chasing them, Burke said.

The armed men followed the couple, who live in western Wayne County, to the Harper Woods police station, 19617 Harper Ave., and continued to chase them in the parking lot behind the building, Burke said.

After they became aware of the officers presence in the parking lot, the passenger jumped from the car and ran while the driver exited onto Harper Avenue where he was pulled over by other officers who responded to the unlikely scene, Burke said.

The driver was arrested immediatley. Harper Woods police called for the help from , and to search for the other man who ran from the getaway car, Burke said. 

It took more than 30 minutes to find the man, who was running through backyards but was eventually caught on Woodmont Street near Beaconsfield, Burke said. He was not armed and surrendered, he said.

During the arrests, officers found an AR-15 with a loaded 100-bullet drum magazine inside the getaway car, which had been stolen during a carjacking near Wayne State University Sunday afternoon, Burke said. The victim in that crime described a rifle type gun that matched the description of the automatic weapon recovered, Burke said.

Both men were turned over to Detroit Police while the victims, both of whom sustained non-life-threatening injuries from being shot were taken to an area hospital. Both are expected to recover, Burke said.

The case is unusual in many aspects.

While Detroit Police are ultimately handling the investigation, during the short time Harper Woods and the Pointes were involved in it, Burke said they discovered the encounter between the armed men and the victims was random. They do not know each other, he said.

For a robber to shoot an uncooperative victim is yet another unusual occurrence and then even more surprising, Burke said, is that the criminal followed the victims to the police station.

"Generally, criminals are more aware of the location of police stations," Burke said. "I don't know if they were so concentrated on what they were doing that they didn't realize or what. Normally the bad guys would flee."

Then there is the weapon that was recovered, which is atypical in Harper Woods at least. The AR-15 is a semi-automatic assault weapon and it had been modified to include a drum magazine that held 100 rounds of ammunition. Burke described it as an "almost military grade" gun.

Handguns are the weapons more typcially confiscated during arrests or used in crimes such as robberies, he said. Although such weapons are becoming more common in the eastern side of Detroit, Burke said, noting the department's close work with Detroit Police.

"This was a very dangerous, dangerous situation," Burke said. "We appreciate the help Grosse Pointe officers were able to give us."

The situation, which was pretty violent to begin with, could have turned into something much worse were it not for the cooperative work by the officers from the Grosse Pointes, he said.