A former Detroit firefighter is accused of terrorizing a west side neighborhood with a string of suspected arsons and robberies, targeting garages, homes, and even stealing personal items from firefighters battling one of the blazes.

Watch Randy Wimbley's report below Former Detroit firefighter accused of arsons, robberies targeting west side neighborhood

Investigators believe Eric Anderson committed the crimes between July and August. No one was hurt.

Derrick Atkins grew up in a home on Central Street on Detroit's west side and moved in April. He says Anderson his childhood friend is suspected of setting his garage on fire.

"My grandpa built that garage, so this house go back, 55 years old," Atkins said.

The betrayal hit especially hard for Atkins, who described a close bond with Anderson.

"He hugged my mother. He came over here and ate food when we barbecued for the 4th. It, it's just a lot of memories," Atkins said.

Yosef Hajaji says his garage was torched about a week after Atkins'. He purchased the home through the Detroit Land Bank.

"I got this house from Land Bank. So I tried to fix it, so I live, me and my family in it," Hajaji said.

Hajaji described his reaction to finding his garage destroyed.

"Pissed off, mad, and I don't know what to do, especially if I didn't have no insurance, no help," Hajaji said.

Prosecutors say Anderson stole personal items from firefighters as they worked to extinguish one of the blazes. Anderson exploded in a series of outbursts in court Monday, and a judge doubled his bond to $1 million. Investigators confirm Anderson is suspected in additional arsons in the area, and more charges are possible.

Anderson's history with the Detroit Fire Department and with law enforcement stretches back years. The department placed him on unpaid leave following an arrest in June 2022, and he never returned to active duty. Detroit police say in that 2022 incident, Anderson threw a brick through a neighbor's window and opened fire. That neighbor was Atkins.

Anderson pleaded guilty to felony firearm in that case and served over a year in prison.

Current and former firefighters say Anderson began spiraling after his mother passed away about 15 years ago something Atkins confirms.

"His mother died and he was going through some dark times and he just wasn't the same person I grew up with," Atkins said.

Atkins says he still struggles to make sense of what happened.

"You can't really say what a person going through in their life. We grew up together, so it's a lot of stuff that he been through in his life, I thought me and him was friends," Atkins said.

"I don't know what would make him do something so heinous. Mental health is real, man," Atkins said.

Anderson is set to appear in court for another hearing on August 25.

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Karmanos alleges DMC threatened to cut or reduce essential daily support services critical for delivering continuous patient care, restricted the cancer hospital's efforts to build new facilities and expand patient programs, and implemented unjustified service cost hikes.

Watch Randy Wimbley's report below Karmanos Cancer Hospital suing DMC in effort to protect patients

Brian Gamble, president and CEO of Karmanos Cancer Hospital, said the lawsuit is a preemptive effort to bring DMC and Tenet to the table to resolve a longstanding contractual dispute.

"Recently Tenet and DMC threatened to terminate basic functions if Karmanos did not pay the arbitrarily determined amounts. They have recalculated amounts using non-contract calculations that have resulted in higher amounts due than what we've paid historically," Gamble said.

"We took this action as a preemptive action. To preserve and protect our patients to the high quality cancer care that they deserve from us on a daily basis," Gamble said.

When Karmanos separated from DMC in 2005, it entered an agreement to remain on the medical center's Detroit campus and purchase essential support services from DMC.

Gamble says Karmanos has for years worked in good faith to resolve its concerns regarding service levels, costs and delivery of essential services to no avail.

"For a cancer center caring for patients with complex and life altering diagnoses, the threat of disruption of essential services is not simply a business disagreement, it is a patient care issue," Gamble said.

Despite the contract dispute with DMC and Tenet, Karmanos says there will be no disruption to patient care.

The statement below is courtesy of DMC:

For more than 100 years, the Detroit Medical Center has been this citys healthcare safety net. Thousands of patients are being seen and treated on our campus every day. Karmanos is owned by McLaren Health Care, headquartered in Grand Blanc, and has no other presence in our city, preferring to center their broader healthcare services in wealthier suburbs of Michigan while relying on the DMC to subsidize its operations locally. 

Karmanos was built here, on DMCs campus, with DMC, for Detroits patients. DMC supplies to Karmanos what a cancer hospital cannot run without: laboratory, medical records, and operating room services among others. McLaren made a long term commitment with Karmanos in Detroit and now files a frivolous lawsuit as a disguised attempt to renege on their commitments on the DMC campus. 

For more than a year, McLaren decided on its own what to pay for the support services it uses every day and paid a fraction of the cost. McLaren, as one of the wealthiest hospital systems in America that also owns an insurance company spent over a year asking a Detroit safety-net hospital to subsidize it. We absorbed the loss rather than let a payment dispute reach a single bedside. When finally asked to pay fair market value, McLaren sued, skipping the private mediation its own agreements require. That was a choice about publicity, and not about principle. 

DMC honored its agreements. To this day, despite subsidizing the cost of these services for Karmanos, all necessary care remains available from the DMC.  We expect McLaren to honor its own commitments. We reject the allegations and will answer them in court. We will not be taken advantage of. Not when the people of Detroit are the ones who pay for it.

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.

Sumpter Township voters rejected a police protection millage Tuesday, dealing a significant financial blow to the local police department and leaving township officials scrambling to find a path forward.

Watch Randy Wimbley's report below Sumpter Township voters reject millage proposal for police funding

Following the vote, the police department posted to it's Facebook page about the rejection.

"...we have lost all millage funding, which has reduced our operating funds by over 40%. As you can imagine, this is devastating to our ability to provide the level of police services that you, our residents, expect and deserve," the post read in part.

The millage received support from 43 percent of voters.

Gregory Sanders was among those who voted in favor of the measure.

"We weren't looking for that to happen. You know, it's very important that we have that protection here and for that tohappen is, is, it's gonna hurt," Sanders said.

Resident Beth Semelroth, who also supported the millage, shared similar concerns.

"It's certainly frightening to think you lose 41% of your protection," Semelroth said.

Not all residents, however, are convinced the budget cut will directly impact their quality of life.

"We're small, so it wouldn't affect us as much as it would, you know, a bigger city," resident Michelle Branch said.

"It seems like a quiet neighborhood around here. I don't really see a whole lot of crime. I mean, I'm sure there's crime, but never was a lot of crime around here when I was younger," resident Brian Herron said.

Township Trustee Tim Rush said the police department has not had a millage increase since 2011, but remains fully funded through the end of this year.

Rush believes the township is losing out on critical revenue from mobile home communities he says are not assessed properly. He said those communities contribute roughly 3 percent of tax revenue to the police department, yet account for nearly 40percent of all police calls.

Anthony Swafford, who lives in a local mobile home community,said he supports the police but did not make it to the polls Tuesday because of his work schedule.

"I do support my police and I do see a lot of police activity here and I, I appreciate them patrolling daily," Swafford said.

He added that he would vote in favor of the millage if given another opportunity.

"But if you get another shot at it, -- I'll definitely -- vote for it.Yeah, I definitely, I support, support the blue all day," Swafford said.

Township officials are calling an emergency board meeting Thursday to get the millage back on the November ballot.Township leaders must finalize and submit new millage ballot language to Wayne County by Aug. 11.

A Sumpter Township trustee said low voter turnout played a major role in the millage's failure, and officials are banking on higher turnout in November to pass the measure.

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A Pontiac family is mourning the loss of a young father after what loved ones say started as an act of kindness turned deadly.

Antwon Herring, 23, was shot and killed during a block party last Saturday. His family says he was there supporting his fiance, Adrianna Brown, as she sold baked goods to raise money for her cousin the same cousin whose boyfriend was arrested for pulling the trigger.

Watch Randy Wimbley's video report below: Pontiac father killed at block party while helping fiance raise money for family member

"It was for someone else. An act of kindness end up with him losing his life," his mother, Lachen Herring, said.

Brown says Antwon Herring got into an argument with her cousin the very person they were trying to help after her car was repossessed. That dispute quickly escalated when the cousin's boyfriend got involved.

"She started screaming her children's father's name: Marquan, Marquan, Marquan," Brown said. "You still proceed to come over there with this hostile energy ready to pounce... trigger-happy."

Antwon Herring's family says he was struck twice once in the chest and once in the neck.

"It's so agitating knowing that the person that I loved the most was taken by someone I call family, someone he called a friend, someone who shook his hand that same day," Brown said.

Oakland County sheriff's deputies arrested Marquan Henderson at the scene. He was charged with second-degree murder on Wednesday. Lachen Herring says her son and Henderson grew up playing football together.

"Tragically, we see this more and more where there's an interpersonal conflict and it goes quickly to violence, and then that violence escalates dramatically," Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said.

Antwon Herring's family remembers him as a man who devoted himself to others.

"He was about family, football, coaching," Lachen Herring said. "Getting everybody together. That's what he loved to do. That was his acts of kindness."

He leaves behind two young children, with a third on the way.

"Antwon told me he had father figures in his life, but he never had his own dad in his life. So he was like, 'I'm gonna be the best that I can be. I'm gonna make sure my kids got everything they need,'" Brown said. "Damir, Antwon, Roman, they would all go outside and do drills and play basketball and that was their personal own bond... that was something of theirs and my baby, he don't understand that his dad isn't coming back because he's only 1. I got another baby who never gonna meet his daddy."

Henderson is being held in the Oakland County Jail without bond. If convicted as charged, he faces up to life in prison.

The Herring family is asking for donations, which can be made at Cobbs Funeral Home in Pontiac.

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.

The Gordie Howe International Bridge is now open, creating a major new gateway between Detroit and Windsor after more than 20 years of planning, politics, and construction.

Watch Randy Wimbley's video reports: Drivers arriving in Canada talk about Gordie Howe International Bridge Drivers arriving in Canada talk about Gordie Howe International Bridge

The first cars and trucks rolled across the six-lane span Monday morning including a Dodge Charger driven by Gordie Howe, the grandson of the hockey legend whose name now stretches across the Detroit River.

"It was incredible," Howe said. "It just makes me think about all the people who have worked on this bridge and all the people we talked to today just how happy everyone must be that this bridge came to fruition. It's just an honor to be the first to cross."

The bridge features three lanes into the U.S. and three into Canada, with officials able to shift traffic flow as needed.

The project traces its origins to a 2004 cross-border study that concluded a new or expanded connection between Detroit and Windsor was needed. In 2012, former Michigan Governor Rick Snyder and then-Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper reached an agreement for Canada to fund construction of the new span. Construction got underway in 2018, with most of the work wrapped up late last year.

"It's such a sense of relief and excitement and really such a sense of pride. I think those are feelings that everyone who has worked on this project is experiencing," Heather Grondin of the Windsor Detroit Bridge Authority said.

The road to opening was not without obstacles. The Moroun family owners of the Ambassador Bridge spent years fighting the project in court. Earlier this year, President Trump threatened to block the bridge's opening without trade concessions from Canada following a reported million-dollar donation to his Make America Great Committee from the Moroun family. Just weeks ago, Canadian officials canceled a joint ribbon cutting after new tariff threats from the White House.

7 News Detroit rode shotgun with Jim Pereira of On-Freight Logistics the first truck driver to cross the new bridge alongside Erik Behrens, the architect who designed the span. Monday marked Behrens' first official crossing.

For Pereira, the new bridge means smoother commerce and fewer delays.

"You're just-in-time delivery for trucking. You want to get your loads there as soon as possible. You don't want anyone stressing out over whether it's going to be late or delayed, getting in contact with customers saying we're delayed at the bridge or the backup is too long. I think that's all going to be toned down now, and commerce and trade are going to be exponentially better," Pereira said.

Pereira said the crossing also sent a message about the relationship between the two countries.

"So I'll tell you right now, when I first crossed the officers on that side, they proved that Canada and the US, we're still together, we're still allies, no matter what's going on in the world right now," Pereira said.

Behrens said he hopes the bridge becomes more than just a crossing.

"It's mesmerizing. It's absolutely magic, to be honest. I hope other people feel the same because this bridge is a marvel of engineering, but it's also an architectural beauty," Behrens said.

"I hope that people love that bridge. People on their route to Detroit and Windsor should have a magic experience and a very personal experience, and I hope for the region it sets a new tone and obviously it connects everyone," Behrens said.

The spokesperson for the Ambassador Bridge did not respond to a request for comment.

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This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.