CARBONDALE, Kan. (AP) — Four law enforcement officers were shot Saturday morning while responding to a domestic violence call at a home in a rural area south of Topeka, and a 22-year-old male suspect died of gunshot wounds at the scene.
The suspect’s 77-year-old grandfather also was wounded in the gunfire but he and the law enforcement officers are all expected to recover, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation said.
The shooting occurred around 10:30 a.m. Three Osage County sheriff’s deputies and one Kansas Highway Patrol trooper were shot, the KBI’s director and the patrol’s superintendent said.
Two deputies underwent surgery at a Topeka hospital and were in good condition, the KBI said, and the third deputy was discharged. The trooper was transferred from the same hospital to the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kansas.
“After being on scene less than 10 minutes, gunfire erupted,” patrol Superintendent Erik Smith said during a news conference at the Carbondale City Library.
Carbondale is a town of about 1,300 people about 16 miles south of Topeka, the state capital, off Highway 75.
The shooting stunned neighbors John and Heather Roberts, who live about a mile north of where it occurred on the same two-lane road. They never sensed any problem in any of the family members, such as drugs, alcohol abuse or violence, and they said the suspect’s grandmother gave Christian books to area children she knew.
They said it is not uncommon to see law enforcement vehicles on the road outside their home because they live at the line between Osage County, home to Carbondale, and Shawnee County, home to Topeka, and vehicles turn around there or the counties exchange prisoners.
John Roberts said he was putting siding on his barn when two law enforcement vehicles flew down the road in the morning.
“Both of them were running, I would say, well over 100 miles an hour as they went by,” he said. “Then the city of Topeka officers started going by. That’s when I started to really get concerned.”
He said the suspect visited the shop he has at his home to return tools and was “a good kid.” Roberts added that many families in the area own guns because hunting is a common hobby, and that was the case with this family.
“I love the family. They’re great people,” Heather Roberts said, adding that she and her husband were praying for the wounded officers too.
She said every time the suspect visited their home, he would give her a hug and he was “very respectful.”
“I don’t know what snapped in him today, but his grandparents loved him very much,” she said.
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Dura reported from Bismarck, North Dakota.
Kansas Bureau of Investigation Director Tony Mattivi speaks at a news conference about a domestic violence incident that resulted multiple casualties, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025, at the Carbondale City Library in Carbondale, Kan. (AP Photo/John Hanna)
Exiled by the elite after his conviction for sexually soliciting a teenage girl and failing to rehabilitate his image as a sexual predator, an embittered Jeffrey Epstein in 2011 believed his old friend Donald Trump had escaped scrutiny.
“I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump,” Epstein wrote to his longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell that April, noting Trump had “spent hours at my house” with Virginia Giuffre, one of the most prominent women to speak out about being abused by the financier, who died by suicide in April.
Ghislaine Maxwell in 2013 file photo. (Photo by Laura Cavanaugh/Getty Images)
The correspondence, obtained from Epstein’s estate by the House Oversight Committee, was included among more than 20,000 documents released this week that brought the men’s relationship history into greater focus. Scores of emails in the cache chart Epstein’s obsession with Trump as he spiraled into scandal and his Palm Beach neighbor ascended to the presidency.
Epstein was at a low point when he sent the missive to Maxwell after serving jail time in Florida for soliciting a 16-year-old. Two months earlier, a Manhattan judge had rejected a bid to downgrade his sex offender status, despite the well-connected wealth manager having then-District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr., in his corner.
Giuffre had publicly spoken out about her allegations that Epstein trafficked her to powerful men for sex, sharing with the Daily Mail a now-infamous photograph of her with his friend Prince Andrew and Maxwell as apparent evidence.
Epstein’s 2011 email to Maxwell marveled that Trump, then hosting “The Apprentice” and floating a run for president had “never once been mentioned.”
Virginia Roberts Giuffre speaks at a press conference following a hearing where Jeffrey Epstein victims made statements at Manhattan Federal Court Tuesday, August 27, 2019 in Manhattan, New York. (Barry Williams for New York Daily News)
“I have been thinking about that…,” Maxwell replied.
Democrats released Epstein’s 2011 message to Maxwell among a set of emails early Wednesday that appeared to suggest the president knew about the financier’s depraved lifestyle and its young victims.
Claiming that their colleagues across the aisle had engaged in a cherry-picking mission, House Republicans later published thousands of Epstein’s digital files online, revealing Giuffre’s identity in the 2011 message, which the Democrats had previously redacted. Many came to the president’s defense, arguing that it proved nothing. Giuffre, they noted, had denied that Trump had abused her or that she’d seen him abuse others in the years before her death.
The president has long denied engaging in any abuse and claimed he stopped talking to Epstein — whom he’d counted as a friend since the 1980s — in the early 2000s over a dispute related to real estate.
On Friday, following a barrage of reporting about the emails, Trump took to his social media site Truth Social to slam what he calls the “EPSTEIN HOAX.” He demanded the Justice Department investigate Epstein’s “involvement and relationship with Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, Reid Hoffman, J.P. Morgan, Chase, and many other people and institutions, to determine what was going on with them, and him.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi said Jay Clayton, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, would head the probe.
US President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, DC on November 7, 2025. (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
Dirt on Trump
The trove of Epstein emails released this week, massive in volume and spanning 2011 to 2019, includes 1,625 references to Trump, although there is no direct communication between the two men.
Made clear throughout is that — whether or not he did — Epstein maintained he had dirt on Trump.
Messaging ahead of a presidential debate in December 2015, Epstein asked his quasi-consultant, Trump biographer Michael Wolff, with whom he spoke regularly, how Trump might best answer a potential question about their relationship.
“I think you should let him hang himself. If he says he hasn’t been on the plane or to the house, then that gives you a valuable PR and political currency. You can hang him in a way that potentially generates a positive benefit for you, or, if it really looks like he could win, you could save him, generating a debt,” Wolff responded.
“Of course, it is possible that, when asked, he’ll say Jeffrey is a great guy and has gotten a raw deal and is a victim of political correctness, which is to be outlawed in a Trump regime.”
Wolff suggested it could be time to pull the trigger less than two weeks before Trump won the presidency in 2016, following the release of “Filthy Rich,” a book about Epstein’s perversions.
“There’s an opportunity to come forward this week and talk about Trump in such a way that could garner you great sympathy and help finish him. Interested?” Wolff wrote on Oct. 29. It’s not clear from the release whether Epstein responded.
The batch of emails released this week, made searchable online by the Courier Newsroom, is separate from the federal government’s investigative records — the so-called “Epstein files” — whose release the House of Representatives is set to vote on next week.
The trove sheds light on Epstein’s state of mind in the years before his death, and how closely he followed the president’s whereabouts, policy moves, and his own set of scandals. In countless typo-laden emails, the Brooklyn-born financier situated himself as a POTUS expert in conversations with journalists and various confidants, spoke with members of Trump’s inner circle, and sought to shape U.S. policy.
In June 2018, he asked former Norwegian Prime Minister Thorbjørn Jagland to convey a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin about his willingness to provide insight on Trump.
His correspondence with Wolff is featured throughout the records, and Epstein also frequently spoke about Trump with former New York Times reporter Landon Thomas Jr., joking about sending him a photo of Trump with girls in bikinis in his kitchen in December 2015.
Epstein communicated regularly with the often foul-mouthed former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, whom he told Trump was “borderline insane,” the emails show.
He also chatted often with Trump adviser Steve Bannon, who in August 2018 told the financier they had to discuss “a crazed jihad against u,” and that “somebody big has u in the gunsights.”
After Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to breaking campaign finance laws for then-President Trump in the now-notorious Stormy Daniels hush money scheme in 2018, Epstein alluded to his insider’s perspective in correspondence with Kathy Ruemmler, a former Goldman Sachs executive and Obama aide, with whom the cache shows he frequently chatted.
“You see, i know how dirty donald is,” the financier quipped. “my guess is that non-lawyers ny biz people have no idea. what it means to have your fixer flip.”
“The real villain”
That December, The Miami Herald published the most complete account yet of allegations Epstein had serially exploited vulnerable teenage girls. The piece laid out how Epstein had effectively gotten off with a slap on the wrist in his 2008 plea deal due to former U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta, who Trump had tapped as his Labor Secretary.
Epstein strategized with Wolff, who believed “directly debunking” the claims wasn’t the right move.
“That’s going against virtue itself,” Wolff wrote. “What I’d like to do is game out everything, creating a structure for thinking this through. Definitely not a piecemeal response. Figure out where we want to be and where we can reasonably get and work backwards.”
Epstein replied, “im thinking what would trump do.”
“Claims are ludicrous and self-serving, media is working with the other side’s lawyers, this is all about Donald Trump,” Wolff responded.
“…all about Donald Trump, the real villain,” Epstein said.
Less than two months later, Epstein explicitly implicated Trump, mentioning Mar-a-Lago to Wolff in a partially redacted email on January 31, 2019, and writing, “trump said he asked me to resign, never a member ever. . of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop.”
Epstein was apparently still focused on the president the following June, when an email outlining some of Trump’s potentially questionable financial dealings landed in his inbox. Epstein’s accountant Richard Kahn sent over “interesting findings” from financial disclosures, or what Kahn called “trumps 100 pages of nonsense.”
Within eight weeks, Epstein was dead. Officials said he’d killed himself in his lower Manhattan jail cell a month after his arrest on sweeping sex trafficking charges.
Maxwell, his longtime partner in crime, was indicted a year later for aiding the abuse for at least a decade in the 1990s and convicted at trial in December 2021. This summer, she was transferred to a cushy prison facility in Bryan, Texas, after meeting with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump’s former personal lawyer, for a highly unusual sit-down.
Transcripts of the meeting showed that Epstein’s longtime right-hand revealed little new information but notably praised the president, whom she is reportedly now planning to ask for a pardon.
FILE – This photo provided by the New York State Sex Offender Registry shows Jeffrey Epstein, March 28, 2017. (New York State Sex Offender Registry via AP, File)
Royal Oak police have released additional information about a woman crashing her vehicle into the Ulta Beauty store on Woodward Avenue early Sunday morning — alleging she had been fleeing officers and is suspected of drunk driving.
Katrina Deann-Renee Patterson, 26, is charged with multiple felonies:
• Fleeing police — third-degree
• Assault/resist/obstruct police
• Two counts of felonious assault
• Malicious destruction of a building
• Malicious destruction of personal property
• Malicious destruction of police property
Katrina Patterson booking photo
According to a news release from Royal Oak Police Lt. Rich Millard, the incident unfolded at around 12:40 a.m. Nov. 9 when officers responded to a report of a white SUV driving on the railroad tracks near West Fourth Street and South Center Street. Officers reportedly spotted an open container of alcohol in the SUV, which had a tire “going flat,” and the driver — identified as Patterson — refused to cooperate with them. She then took off in her SUV, down Washington Avenue.
The police pursuit continued onto Farnum Avenue, onto Oakridge Avenue and then into an alley paralleling Woodward where Patterson reportedly turned; she accelerated and lost control of her vehicle, crashing into the Ulta store, the release states.
Patterson allegedly tried to flee while her SUV was fully lodged in the building, “backing up and ramming a patrol car,” the release states. She kept trying to drive away, moving the SUV further into the store where she caused thousands of dollars in damage, the release states.
After the SUV became lodged on debris, Patterson was taken into custody without further incident, the release states.
Patterson is suspected of being under the influence of alcohol at the time, but that determination is pending blood test results, the release states.
The amount of damage caused in the crash has not yet been determined.
An unidentified worker removing debris from the store on Sunday (Jeff Payne/MediaNews Group)
Patterson and a male passenger — who was cited for having open alcohol in the vehicle — were medically evaluated for minor injuries suffered in the crash. No officers were injured.
“We are extremely fortunate this suspect did not seriously injure or kill our officers, herself, her passenger or anyone else during this reckless incident,” said Police Chief Michael Moore.
Of the criminal charges Patterson faces, malicious destruction of a building carries the stiffest possible penalty — up to 10 years in prison. The other crimes have possible penalties ranging from two years to five years incarceration.
Patterson is held in the Oakland County Jail with bond set at $50,000 — with no 10% provision. Her next court appearance is tentatively scheduled for Nov. 21.
Patterson’s criminal history includes a 2023 conviction for operating while intoxicated in Port Huron.
Recent similar incidents
This is the third reported incident in recent days of vehicles crashing into buildings in Oakland County.
Last Thursday, six people were hurt when a 77-year-old Bloomfield Hills woman drove into the Thai Taste To Go restaurant on Telegraph Road near Long Lake Road in Bloomfield Township.
And on Oct. 27 in Troy, a 45-year-old woman reportedly crashed a Chevy Equinox into the side of a residence on Woodside Trail. In that incident, police said witnesses reported that prior to the crash the woman hit a trailer while making a left turn, and then her vehicle rolled down the hill into the building. After she refused to submit to a breath test, officers were granted a search warrant to have medical personnel draw her blood and the case was subsequently turned over to the detective bureau, police said.
The driver was taken into custody after reportedly fleeing police and crashing her car into the Ulta store on Woodward Avenue in Royal Oak, suspected of being drunk (Jeff Payne/MediaNews Group)
Felony charges are under review by the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office for a Detroiter who reportedly broke into a Bloomfield Township house last Friday — and the homeowner slept through it, officials said.
The suspect had been taken into custody on unrelated charges in Plymouth Township when police there allegedly found him in possession of personal property from a residence in the 2800 block of Berkshire Drive in Bloomfield Township. Bloomfield Township police were contacted, and officers went to the home where they found one of the doorwalls ajar and the inside of the residence disturbed, police said. A home invasion was confirmed. Personal checks and $900 were reported missing.
The suspect, age 27, doesn’t know the homeowner, police said.
Officers subsequently obtained video surveillance footage from the neighborhood showing the suspect walking through backyards in the area at approximately 1:30 a.m. on Nov. 7, police said.
The Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office is reportedly considering filing charges of home invasion and possession of stolen property against the suspect.
A 38-year-old felon is facing charges for a recent armed robbery at a Troy gas station.
Joseph Louis Carter was arraigned Nov. 10 in 52-4 District Court 10 for armed robbery, felon in possession of a firearm and two counts of felony firearm in connection with the Oct. 30 incident at the Shell gas station, located at 6951 Rochester Road. He’s held in the Oakland County Jail, denied bond.
According to the Troy Police Department, a masked man armed with a rifle — allegedly Carter — entered the gas station, pointed a weapon at the store clerk and demanded money from the cash register. The clerk handed over an undisclosed amount of cash to the robber, who then fled on foot.
No injuries were reported.
Police said video surveillance showed the robber with what appeared to be an AK-47 style rifle. He remained near the counter during the interaction before fleeing south behind the building, police said.
Police said Carter’s arrest was “made possible through the exceptional teamwork and dedication of our patrol officers, evidence technicians, detectives, Tactical Support Team, Directed Patrol Unit, and Special Investigations Unit.”
The police department also credited the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Detroit police, Ann Arbor police, assistant U.S. Attorney’s Office and the public for information and assistance in moving the case forward.
Carter’s next court appearance is scheduled for Nov. 20 for a probable cause conference.
The brazen daylight heist took place on Oct. 18, triggering a massive investigation that has since revealed the suspects used power tools to bust through the second-floor window of the Apollo Gallery around 9 a.m. The entire operation took under seven minutes, and none of the robbers were at anytime captured by the lone security camera outside the gallery.
During testimony before a French Senate committee last month, Laurence des Cars, the president and director of the Louvre, said the camera had been facing west and did not cover the window the thieves used to gain access to Paris’ most popular museum.
“The security system, as installed in the Apollo Gallery, worked perfectly,” he said, per ABC News. “The question that arises is how to adapt this system to a new type of attack and modus operandi that we could not have foreseen.”
A private security guard patrols in the courtyard of the Louvre pyramid designed by Chinese-US architect Ieoh Ming Pei, in Paris, on November 3, 2025. (JULIE SEBADELHA/AFP via Getty Images)
Despite touting its functionality, France’s National Cybersecurity Agency was able to access a server managing the museum’s video surveillance by cracking its ridiculously simple password: “LOUVRE,” according to confidential documents obtained by Libération. The eponymous password was initially uncovered by the agency during an audit in 2014. Additional audits revealed “serious shortcomings” in the museum’s security systems, including the use of 20-year-old software.
So far, seven people have been arrested in connection with the heist, two of whom have partially admitted their involvement.
An investigation into the matter is ongoing, and the stolen jewels remain missing weeks later.
An exterior view of the windows after a robbery at the Louvre in Paris, France, October 30, 2025. The Louvre was the target of a robbery on October 19 by several criminals who smashed windows to steal eight precious royal jewels. (Photo by Magali Cohen / Hans Lucas via AFP) (Photo by MAGALI COHEN/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images)
Fire broke out Monday at the Corewell Health Care Center on Rochester Road in Rochester Hills requiring evacuation of the building.
According to the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office, no injuries were reported and the fire was out before 2 p.m. It’s believed the roof caught on fire while contractors were working on the HVAC unit on the roof.
As of 1:45 p.m. Monday, firefighters were still on scene. No other information was immediately available.
The Oakland Press will update this story as details become available.
Two Dearborn men and a group of alleged co-conspirators hatched a plan to commit a terrorist attack in support of the Islamic State, according to a federal criminal case filed Monday that described reconnaissance, firearms and fears the group was targeting an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Ferndale.
The case against Dearborn residents Mohmed Ali and Majed Mahmoud was filed three days after high-profile raids by members of an FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force in Dearborn and Inkster and comments from FBI Director Kash Patel that investigators had thwarted a violent plot tied to international terrorism that was planned over the Halloween weekend.
A view of west Nine Mile Road in downtown Ferndale earlier this year. (CLARENCE TABB, Jr. — The Detroit News)
The criminal complaint describes a group of five co-conspirators, including a juvenile, training with and stockpiling weapons and scouting potential attack locations in downtown Ferndale. The popular downtown is filled with restaurants, bars, clubs and shops and is known as a haven for members of the LGBTQ+ community.
“Based on my investigation in this case, this information is consistent with (the juvenile), Ali and Mahmoud scouting possible LGBTQ+-friendly attack locations in Ferndale,” FBI Special Agent Nicholas Czech wrote in the complaint.
The men, whose ages were not immediately available, were charged with receiving and transferring, and attempting and conspiring to transfer firearms and ammunition while knowing or having reasonable cause to believe the weapons would be used to commit an act of terrorism. The felony carries a maximum 15-year federal prison sentence.
Investigators say Mohmed Ali was spotted handling firearms at at Downriver Guns on Sept. 24, 2025. (U.S. Attorney’s Office)
The charge was filed three days after FBI agents raided two homes in Dearborn and an Inkster storage facility and arrested five people ages 16-20.
Mahmoud’s lawyer Bill Swor declined to comment until he had a chance to read the criminal complaint.
Attorney Amir Makled, who represents a 20-year-old Dearborn man, has denied the men were involved in terrorism.
“One thing is for sure, they didn’t have a plan to attack and are not part of a terror cell,” Makled told The News.
Ali, Mahmoud and others are accused of using online encrypted communications and social media apps to share extremist and ISIS-related material that encouraged terror attacks.
Based on the chats, an attack appeared scheduled for Halloween, according to the government, and Ali and the juvenile “sought guidance from the father of a local Islamic extremist ideologue…on this question,” the FBI agent wrote.
The ideologue is not identified by name but “has publicly proclaimed his support for the Islamic extremist ideology espoused by ISIS,” the agent wrote.
Since the raids, provocative statements from FBI Director Kash Patel and other Trump administration officials, a lack of criminal charges or details about alleged wrongdoing, or names of the accused, led criminal defense lawyers in Metro Detroit to question the legitimacy of the investigation and deny there was a terrorist plot.
The court filing describes talk of a terror attack, firearms and training.
The investigation dates to July, when investigators discovered encrypted chats in which Ali and a juvenile were said to be planning a terrorist attack in the U.S. on behalf of the Islamic State, according to the 73-page criminal complaint.
FBI agents alleged Mahmoud and others conspired to commit the attack.
Amid those chats, Ali purchased an AR-15-style rifle and accessories in August and September, according to the government.
“Then in October 2025, Mahmoud purchased over 1,600 rounds of ammunition that could be used in the AR-15 style rifles he and Ali had purchased,” the complaint reads.
Investigators allege Ali, Mahmoud, the juvenile and two others practiced shooting firearms at gun ranges, a stop investigators believe was to develop the skills to aid in the attack.
The investigation is the latest in Metro Detroit, a region where several residents in recent years have been accused of providing or trying to provide support to the Islamic State or launching failed attempts to kill people.
“Through swift action and close coordination with our local partners, a potential act of terror was stopped before it could unfold,” Patel said in a social media post. “The vigilance of this FBI prevented what could have been a tragic attack — and thanks to their dedication, Michigan will have a safe and happy Halloween.”
In the wake of the raid, Makled faulted Patel for making “premature” comments about the investigation. The five people arrested by the FBI ― all U.S. citizens ― were not planning an attack, he said.
“There was never any planned mass-casualty event or terrorism plot of any kind that I’m aware of,” Makled said. “They might have been on some websites or online chat groups that they shouldn’t have been, but nothing that is illegal.”
Authorities are pictured outside of a home on Horger Street on Oct. 31. (CLARENCE TABB, Jr. — The Detroit News)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Multiple people who had been allegedly plotting a violent attack over the Halloween weekend were arrested Friday morning in Michigan, FBI Director Kash Patel said in a social media post.
Patel didn’t release further information about the arrests, but said more information would be coming.
Dearborn Police said in a social media post that the department was made aware that the FBI conducted operations in the city on Friday and assured residents that there is no threat to the community.
FBI director Kash Patel speaks during a roundtable on criminal cartels with President Donald Trump in the State Dining Room of the White House, Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
The widow of a man killed in 2010 in Farmington Hills and her attorney say the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office is neglecting its duties in the retrial of the man convicted of killing her husband.
Genniver Jameel, the widow of Saif Jameel, said she is frustrated about what she sees as corruption in the prosecutor’s office and courtroom maneuvers strip away the justice her family got in 2011 when Hayes Bacall was sentenced to life in prison for the first-degree murder of her husband. Bacall is in the process of being retried for Saif Jameel’s murder after the Court of Appeals vacated his conviction in April.
“We are living through hell every single day — grieving Saif while fighting a system that seems determined to silence us,” Jameel told The Detroit News in a statement. “Instead of finding support and accountability through the court system, we have faced betrayal and corruption that has only deepened our suffering.”
Hayes Bacall was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 2011 for the July 2010 murder of his nephew Saif Jameel. Prosecutors say Bacall walked into the gas station Jameel owned and shot him 12 times, then later told police he killed Jameel because Jameel owed him $400,000.
The Oakland County Conviction Integrity Unit reviewed the case in 2022 and determined that prosecutorial misconduct related to lies the prosecutor told during closing arguments, as well as witnesses recanting their testimony, resulted in a weak conviction.
Prosecutors and Bacall’s attorneys agreed to move forward with a second-degree murder charge instead of the original first-degree murder charge in 2023, but new evidence has again come up, pausing justice for Saif Jameel again.
Prosecutors obtained recordings in May and July of two phone calls that one of the recanting witnesses, Samir Bacall, Saif’s younger brother, had with his aunt. In the calls, Samir implies he lied during his recantation and was truthful in his original testimony. He expresses a desire for revenge on Genniver Jameel because she allegedly owes him money.
Though prosecutors transcribed translations of the calls in time to include them in their response to Hayes Bacall’s motion to dismiss the first-degree murder charge, prosecutors did not mention them in public court filings until days after Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Mary Ellen Brennan granted Hayes Bacall’s motion Oct. 15 and dismissed the first-degree murder charge. Assistant Prosecutor David Williams said Brennan knew about the filings from off-the-record conversations, but they were not introduced to influence her decision on the first-degree murder charge.
The first mention of Samir’s statements came in a motion for reconsideration of Brennan’s decision filed after 5 p.m. Oct. 20, the day before Bacall was set to plead guilty to second-degree murder. The recordings call into question the validity of Samir’s recantation and his motives for his original trial testimony, Assistant Prosecutor Shelbee Sanborn wrote in the motion for reconsideration.
Brennan said the late filing was “stunning” and said “I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Sanborn during a hearing Oct. 21 told Brennan she had to work “very quickly” to get this motion filed and did it as soon as she could, but did not say why the information was not included in her response to Bacall’s motion to dismiss the first-degree murder charge. Prosecutors filed the motion after The News inquired Oct. 16 about the recordings and why they weren’t brought up.
Sanborn wrote in her motion that she did not have a chance to tell Brennan about the new evidence, including the recordings and another witness who could testify to premeditation, on Oct. 15 when Brennan ruled on the motion. Sanborn is asking Brennan to reconsider her ruling dismissing the first-degree murder charge for Bacall.
“The existence of the phone calls was never a secret. They were disclosed to the defense and we made the court aware of their existence,” said Chief Assistant Prosecutor David Williams. “We didn’t believe that the phone calls were relevant to the motion to dismiss, which is why we didn’t attach them to our response.”
Genniver Jameel’s attorney, Pam Szydlak, said the prosecutor’s office’s conduct is “nothing short of alarming.”
Jameel and Szydlak said Sanborn told them she would be fighting for the first-degree charge to remain in place, and would be mentioning the recordings in her response and at the hearing on Bacall’s motion to dismiss the first-degree murder charge. Sanborn did not mention it, however, and argued only that prosecutors were not barred from proceeding with the first-degree case in her written response.
“The People were given a full and fair opportunity to defend against this motion, yet they failed to do so in any meaningful or competent way — all the while pretending they were fighting it,” Szydlak said. “Rather than engage with real legal issues and the transcripts of Samir Bacall saying he lied in his recantation, they instead offered vague assertions, unsupported rhetoric, and outright neglect of its duty to the court and the interests of justice.”
Williams said no one has denied Hayes Bacall shot and killed Saif Jameel, and the prosecutor’s office has continued to fight to hold him accountable for his actions. Prosecutors are now seeking to have Bacall tried again for first-degree murder.
“Those recordings are attached to our motion for reconsideration, and the Judge has agreed to consider them,” Williams said in a statement. “The Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office has fully pursued a transparent and thorough review of the case against Hayes Bacall for the death of Saif Jameel.”
Samir Bacall, Saif’s younger brother, originally testified that Hayes Bacall had called him multiple times in the months before the shooting, saying he was going to kill Saif because of the money he owed him. Samir and Jameel’s close friend Slieman Bashi said in 2022 that they lied during the trial about these statements, which was part of why prosecutors decided to reopen the case and seek to overturn Bacall’s conviction.
In the recorded conversation, Samir told his aunt “she harmed me,” speaking of Genniver.
“Yes, but you don’t go to seek your revenge on her by going and changing your testimony,” the aunt said, according to a translated transcript of the phone call.
Samir talks mostly about seeking revenge on Genniver, because he says she sought revenge on him and took his money, but also said “I did not testify falsely, no, I didn’t lie … Geniver Geniver (sic) is the one who testified falsely, not I.”
Bacall’s attorney, Mark Krieger, said during a hearing Oct. 21 that he didn’t think the recording changes anything and that Brennan should not change her ruling about the first-degree murder charge. He said Bacall was prepared that day to plead guilty to second-degree murder. Krieger did not respond for comment.
Brennan will issue a written ruling on Sanborn’s motion for reconsideration. Bacall’s next court date is Dec. 4.
Hayes Bacall sits during a hearing in front of Oakland County Circuit Judge Mary Ellen Brennan in Pontiac on May 24, 2023. On Monday, the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled that he may deserve a new trial. (David Guralnick/MediaNews Group)
One of the biggest issues Detroiters face has to do with their homes. There are a fair number of homes in the city, but over 20,000 of them are in dire need of repairs. That includes leaky roofs, electricity issues, and asbestos in the walls.
The problem is large, but one retired firefighter, Gary Ringer, is trying to chip away at it. The Detroiter, who mostly helps people on the West Side, has been spending a lot of his time going to peoples’ homes, and assisting them with repairs.
What inspires Gary’s volunteerism? What are the repairs people need? And, with the mayoral election next week, what kinds of investments does he think the next mayor should make to facilitate more home repairs?
Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.
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While Royal Oak police haven’t yet provided an update for the slaying of an 83-year-old man on Oct. 24, his identity has been confirmed as David Ong of Bloomfield Hills.
A volunteer at St. Hugo of the Hills Catholic Church’s parish office told The Oakland Press on Monday that Ong, who died last Friday at a home in Royal Oak, was a member of St. Hugo’s.
The Oakland County Medical Examiner’s Office conducted an autopsy on Ong on Monday and ruled the death a homicide. The cause of death was “multiple sharp force injuries to the head and hands, and complications thereof.”
Royal Oak police arrested the suspected killer, a 35-year-old woman — described as an acquaintance of the family — on Friday evening after responding to a report of a man calling for help in the 4300 block of Sheridan Drive in Royal Oak. The suspect had blood on her hands, police said, and was taken into custody following a brief foot chase.
Ong was found unresponsive in the home’s basement with multiple stab wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
The suspect’s name has not yet been released. Arraignment is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, police said.
According to Ong’s obituary, he was “the most loving husband to Jacqueline” — his wife of more than 60 years — devoted father of four, and “Grandpa Dave” to 11.
The obituary further states, in part: “David’s life was defined by faith, humility and a gentle spirit. He was deeply caring, a true friend and a steady source of encouragement and support. He took joy in understanding everything about his children and grandchildren. He loved sports and rarely missed a chance to cheer for his Wolverines, Lions and Tigers. He enjoyed rides in his convertible, loved music and served as a mentor to his family and to many colleagues and employees.”
Ong founded the commercial real estate consulting and development firm, Acquest Realty Advisors, which he led for 45 years, the obituary states.
Visitation is planned for Oct. 31 at Desmond Funeral Home, 2600 Crooks Road in Troy from 1 to 5 p.m. A funeral Mass will be celebrated at St. Hugo of the Hills Catholic Church, 2215 Opdyke Road in Bloomfield Hills on Nov. 1, with visitation at 9:30 a.m. and Mass at 10 a.m.
Oakland County Medical Examiner's Office (file photo by Aileen Wingblad/MediaNews Group)
Bloomfield Township police are investigating several incidents of malicious destruction of property where similar graffiti was spray painted on school facilities and two homes under construction.
The word “LOV3” was spray painted in red at the Booth Center and Wing Lake Developmental Center on Wing Lake Road — on the exterior walls, shed and a dumpster — and the words “LOV3” and “LOV3 Liv3” were spray painted in black and white at homes under construction in the 7000 block of Franklin Road, police said.
Graffiti found at a home under construction in Bloomfield Township (Bloomfield Township Police Dept.)
The MDOPs were reported on Oct. 22 and Oct. 23.
Graffiti found at the Wing Lake Developmental Center (Bloomfield Township Police Dept.)Graffiti at a home under construction in Bloomfield Township (Bloomfield Township Police Dept.)
A can of red spray paint was collected from the school facilities, police said, and is being processed for evidence.
Anyone with further information on the incidents is asked to call the Bloomfield Township Police Department at 248-433-7755.
A Detroit woman is facing criminal charges in Troy for allegedly stealing $1,800 in merchandise from a Kohl’s store as well as possessing fentanyl and a theft detection disabler — which she’s been caught with before, officials said.
The woman, 34, is charged with first-degree retail fraud, possession of a controlled substance and possession of theft detection device-second offense for allegedly having a magnet in her purse which can be used to disable theft detection devices. She was arrested shortly before 3 p.m. on Oct. 15 outside the store, located at 500 John R Road.
According to the Troy Police Department, officers dispatched to the store for a retail fraud in progress watched as she concealed large amounts of merchandise and then left the store with it, despite loss prevention staff’s attempts to stop her. She continued to her vehicle which was backed into a parking spot near the store’s west doors, where she was taken into custody and transported to the Troy lockup facility, police said.
Officers located a small bag in her purse that contained a substance that tested positive for fentanyl, police said, as well as the magnet.
The Oakland Press has reached out to the Troy Police Department for further information, including the woman’s name and booking photo.
Even though violent crime has been falling fast in Detroit over the last decade, the city still has a crime rate that’s one of the highest in the nation.
Every year, police recover about 6,000 illegal guns in Detroit. Yet legal gun ownership is also common in the city, a reflection of how deeply concerns about safety and self-protection run through daily life.
To try to prevent crime before it happens, Detroit police stop people for nonviolent offenses. A Detroit Free Press investigation found that 20 percent of DPD shootings over the past decade started with those kinds of stops.
Those findings stress the question: what is the police’s obligation to stop crime before it happens in a place where many don’t feel safe and guns are plentiful?
To explore this, Detroit Free Press investigative reporter Violet Ikonomova spoke with Robyn Vincent about her recent reporting on police shootings that began with stops for nonviolent offenses.
Correction: A former version of this web post stated that 20 percent of police stops for small infractions ended in police shootings.
Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.
A Pontiac teen recently acquitted of homicide is headed to prison for related convictions of armed robbery and using a firearm to commit the crime.
Sentenced Oct. 13 by Oakland County Circuit Judge Daniel O’Brien, Christian Harris, 19, will spend 13-50 years behind bars for the 2023 armed robbery of Armani Terrell Baker, 22, of Waterford.
Harris got an additional two years behind bars for felony firearm in connection with the armed robbery.
Christian Harris booking photo
Harris was 17 years old at the time of the incident and charged as an adult. His first trial ended in a mistrial last year after the jury deliberated for three days and failed to reach a unanimous verdict. The retrial concluded this past Sept. 8.
The Oakland Press has reached out to the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office and the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office with questions about any further legal activity or investigation regarding Baker’s homicide but hasn’t heard back yet.
The other man charged for related offenses, Jeremiah Rodriguez — age 18 at the time of the incident — made a deal with prosecutors and pleaded guilty in September to an added count of accessory after the fact. Charges of conspiracy to commit armed robbery and possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony were dismissed. Last month, O’Brien sentenced Rodriguez to 14 days in jail with credit for 14 days served, and three years probation.
An 82-year-old Pontiac man died Oct. 10 from injuries he sustained four days earlier when he was hit by a truck while crossing the street, officials said.
The Oakland County Sheriff’s Office identified the man as Larry Gene Howard, and said he was struck by a 2012 Chevrolet Colorado pickup truck near the intersection of Walton Boulevard and Baldwin Avenue in Pontiac, shortly after 12:30 p.m. on Oct. 6.
A 68-year-old Pontiac man was driving the truck southbound on Baldwin Avenue and turning right onto Walton Boulevard when Howard was hit, the sheriff’s office said.
Howard was transported to an area hospital where he died Friday. The incident remains under investigation by the Crash Reconstruction Unit, the sheriff’s office said.
Mourners who gathered in Fenton on Saturday to remember the life of Thelma Armstrong, 54, a victim of the September attack on a Mormon church in Grand Blanc Township, remembered her as a warm, loving person who had a deep devotion to her family and her faith.
Armstrong’s friends and family, who knew her as “Yia Yia,” said she lit up a room with her sunny personality, loved the colors pink and red and had a strong work ethic. She raised two children, Charne’ Lichtenberg and Damon Du Bruyn, on her own and had three grandchildren.
Her son, Damon, said during the memorial service the “world has lost a little bit of joy and a little bit of fire” with his mother’s passing.
“I think the thing that will stay with me forever is just my mom’s kindness. And she never knew how to hold a grudge,” he said.
Armstrong was worshiping at the Grand Blanc Township Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Sept. 28 when Thomas Jacob Sanford, 40, of Burton rammed his pickup truck into the side of the church, shot at congregants and set the building on fire, authorities said.
Two people died from the gunfire, eight were wounded and two bodies were discovered in the rubble of the church, The victims’ ages ranged from 6 to 78 years old. Police shot and killed Sanford at the scene.
Mourners, some dressed in red, filled a chapel in the Sharp Funeral Home in Fenton on Saturday. Pink, red and white flowers surrounded two photos of Armstrong.
Armstrong was born on May 8, 1971, in Klerksdorp, South Africa, according to her online obituary. She immigrated to the U.S. in 2019 to be near her grandchildren, her son-in-law said in remarks at her service.
Thelma Rina Armstrong. (Family pohto)
“She had endured so many trials in her life, and she knew what it was to struggle,” said her son-in-law, Shane Lichtenberg. “And yet none of us knew that, because she shouldered it so well and she had a smile on her face no matter what happened in her life.”
She converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 2011, but Armstrong had always been religious, her obituary said. Her daughter said she felt immediately connected to missionaries who came to her door because of their name tags reading “Jesus Christ.” The bonds she built with them earned her the nickname “Missionary Mother.” She taught a class for 5-year-olds at the Grand Blanc Township church.
In South Africa, Armstrong managed a local grocery store in Klerksdorp called Food Zone. After she moved to the U.S., she worked as a quality technician at American Axle.
Mourners leave after funeral services for Thelma Armstrong at the Sharp Funeral Home, in Fenton, Oct. 11, 2025. Armstrong was killed during a shooting and fire at the Grand Blanc Township Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Sept. 28. (David Guralnick/MediaNews Group)
Speakers said she was always proud of her children, and loved when her daughter picked out her clothes and helped her do her hair. But she considered everyone family, according to her obituary.
Armstrong’s daughter, Charne’ Lichtenberg, shared one of her favorite stories about her mother. On her seventh birthday, her mother told her she had a surprise. Excited about the possibility of a Barbie doll, Lichtenberg was disappointed to see a figure of Jesus in her hand instead − not knowing she would come to appreciate the gift later.
“But what I know now as an adult that − of course I didn’t know at the time as a 7-year-old girl − is that she had placed the biggest gift in my hand that day, and that was the gift of knowing my savior, Jesus Christ,” Lictenberg said.
Mourners leave after the funeral for Thelma Armstrong at the Sharp Funeral Home, in Fenton, Oct. 11, 2025. Armstrong was killed during a shooting and fire at the Grand Blanc Township Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, September 28. (David Guralnick/MediaNews Group)
The Grand Blanc community has set up an official fund to benefit the victims, families and first-responders affected by Sunday’s mass shooting and fire that destroyed the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints chapel in Grand Blanc Township.
The Victim Compassion Fund is hosted by the ELGA Credit Union Foundation for Impact in collaboration with Grand Blanc Township, the township’s police department and the Latter-day Saints Church, which many people know as the Mormon church.
The intent of the fund is to help victims of Sunday’s tragedy, their families, and the injured, as well as first-responders and others with needs, including paying medical bills, financial support, and counseling, organizers said.
“We are going to make sure that the people that actually receive this money are victims of the situation here in Grand Blanc Township,” Township Supervisor Scott Bennett said Friday.
“We had 37 different agencies respond to the fire, so we want to make sure that, whether it’s counseling services or if they need medical bills paid, what have you, we want to be here for them,” Bennett added.
“We have families where the parents can’t work right now because of injury or just being afraid to leave their homes. We want ot make sure we take care of them, as well.”
A committee comprising representatives from the LDS Church, the township and the police department will determine how to distribute the funds based on financial need and the available resources. Those who want to seek financial support from the fund should contact the church or the township at (810) 424-2692 or email assist@gbtgov.com.
“We said, let’s do this where people know it’s safe, and it’s trusted. ELGA Credit Union is a trusted source in Genesee County and beyond here, and people know that,” said Cheryl Sclater, president of the ELGA Credit Union Foundation for Impact.
“As the needs come in, we will fill them, and that’s how it’s going to work. There’s been a few side fundraisers that have been out there in our community, and those people are coming back and giving the money to this fund, so that it actually goes out to victims of this tragedy.”
The LDS church is pointing to the fund as the recommended place for the community to contribute to help victims of the disaster, both to help church members and others, said Greg Geiger, communications director for the LDS Church in Southeast Michigan.
“None of the money will go to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. One-hundred percent of the proceeds will go to victims of this tragedy,” said Geiger, who noted there are no fees associated with the fund.
“We appreciate and acknowledge their effort in trying to help the community.”
Geiger added that the LDS Church is not seeking or accepting funds from any organization to rebuild the church in Grand Blanc Township.
The impetus for the coordinated fundraising effort was, in part, to dissuade scammers, fraudulent fundraisers, and GoFundMe efforts that began circulating in the wake of Sunday’s fire. Community leaders wanted to establish a fund that could be trusted to support the who truly need help, they said.
“This is going to go far beyond even the physical and the health part. It will go on for a while with people who need that support financially for any type of therapy that they might need,” Sclater said.
“There will be a short grant process to have people please explain your needs. … But we want to get this money out. The people in this community have a heart, and they have come together like you can’t even imagine, to gift. We have had people out of state gifting, and it’s pretty amazing.”
Sclater didn’t have an estimated total available as of Friday afternoon, but said people can donate online or visit any EGLA branch in person to donate. She is working with the Mott Foundation and the Community Foundation of Greater Flint, which will accept some of the larger donations to the cause, she said.
She acknowledged that a number of victims’ families have set up GoFundMe accounts, and she stressed the Victim Compassion Fund is entirely separate.
“We are simply that vehicle to give our community a safe place to give back, because they don’t know what else they can do, and they want to give,” Sclater said. “We are that safe haven where they know their dollars are going to go out and be deployed.”
Kelly Pietrzak of Flint Township brought a bouquet of flowers to leave at the scene of the Grand Blanc Township Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Monday, Sept. 29, 2025, in Michigan. (David Guralnick/The Detroit News)
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