A 34-year-old West Bloomfield mother is facing a criminal charge for allegedly leaving a loaded gun in her child’s backpack which was brought into a Royal Oak daycare center.

Karen Reid is charged with reckless use of a firearm — a misdemeanor — for the alleged May 14 incident.

According to the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office, Reid handed the daycare employee the backpack when she dropped off her 3-year-old at the childcare facility.

It was supposed to have the child’s snack in it, but when the employee opened the backpack the loaded handgun was found. It’s alleged Reid put the gun in the backpack to carry it to and from her car but failed to remove it before dropping off her child.

“I’m grateful this is a story about a misdemeanor charge instead of a tragedy,” Prosecutor Karen McDonald stated in a news release. “A loaded gun needs to be secured. Failing to do so around small children is absolutely reckless. The employee who found the gun should be commended for quickly securing it and contacting police.”

The charge is punishable by up to 90 days in jail and/or a $500 fine. It can also result in suspension of hunting privileges for up to three years.

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A preliminary exam is scheduled for two men accused of murdering a man last November in Waterford.

Scheduled for June 18, the exam will be held before 51st District Judge Todd Fox who will then determine if charges will advance against Mike Kruglik, 25, and Jesse Bradshaw, 27, for the slaying of Antonn Cecil Richard Thomas. Thomas was found shot in the chest outside the MJR Waterford Cinema on Nov. 7, 2024 and pronounced dead at an area hospital. He was 28 when killed.

Along with first-degree homicide, Kruglik and Bradshaw are charged with delivery/manufacture of cocaine, delivery/manufacture of psilocybin — commonly known as “magic mushrooms” — delivery/manufacture of marijuana and four counts of felony firearm.

Kruglik, of West Bloomfield, and Bradshaw, of New Boston, were arrested the day after the slaying. They’re both in the Oakland County Jail, denied bond.

Truck slams into Pontiac front room with kids inside; suspected drunk driver arrested

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Three children narrowly escaped serious injury when a pickup truck slammed into the living room of their Pontiac home this past weekend, officials said.

It happened at around 12;20 a.m. last Saturday at an apartment on Firelite Lane near Cherry Hill Drive when a woman driving a 2018 Chevrolet Silverado apparently lost control of the vehicle and crashed into the front door and front window, according to the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office. She fled after the crash, the sheriff’s office said, then was arrested a short time later — suspected of being intoxicated while driving.

The sheriff’s office said the children, two 10-year-old boys and a 13-year-old girl, had gone to the apartment just minutes before to pick up personal belongings and were planning to return to their babysitter’s home across the street when the crash occurred. The kids broke out a window to get out of the apartment, and suffered minor scrapes from flying debris. They were treated at the scene.

The suspected driver, a 36-year-old Pontiac woman, was pointed out by a large crowd that gathered at the scene, the sheriff’s office said.  A security guard turned her over to deputies, the sheriff’s office said, and she denied being the driver. She was arrested on suspicion of operating while intoxicated and released from custody pending toxicology reports.

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Two people who Troy police were watching because they are reportedly “known” to be shoplifters were arrested recently at a Home Depot store for allegedly stealing a lawnmower — and one of them is also facing a drug charge, officials said.

According to the Troy Police Department, the two arrestees, Contel Hayden of Detroit and Nicole Cox of Lathrup Village, were under surveillance by plain clothes officers on May 14 when they arrived at the Home Depot on Coolidge Road. The store’s loss prevention workers monitored the security cameras and relayed information on the two to the plain clothes officers, reporting that Hayden had let the store with a DeWalt lawnmower without paying for it. Police said they saw Cox help Hayden load the stolen lawnmower into their vehicle, so officers approached and took them both into custody.

Crack cocaine was allegedly found in Cox’s purse.

Hayden, 63, is charged with first-degree retail fraud. Cox, 49, is also charged with first-degree retail fraud as well as possession of a controlled substance less than 25 grams. Police said the drug was found in her purse. The charges are felonies.

Both are held in the Oakland County Jail with bonds set at $1,000. They are due back in court on May 29.

Bus driver from Pontiac gets probation for accident that killed child

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A Troy man was arrested for driving with a high blood-alcohol content recently after his son called police to report he’d left their home intoxicated.

According to the Troy Police Department, the son made the call shortly before 4 p.m. on May 9, and officers located the man driving on Crooks Road near Maplelawn Road. He was pulled over for a traffic violation, police said.

The man, 58, showed signs of drunkenness and submitted to a preliminary breath test which measured his blood-alcohol concentration at .28% — more than three times the legal limit for drivers — police said.

He was arrested and taken to the Troy lock-up facility where a chemical breath test was administered and measured his BAC at .25%, police said, leading to a charge of operating while intoxicated.

Bus driver from Pontiac gets probation for accident that killed child

New trial date in home invasion, shooting case; victim stabbed alleged assailant

A Pontiac man who killed a 3-year-old child while driving a bus in Hamtramck last summer was sentenced recently in Wayne County.

Marvin Lee Flentroy, 64, was sentenced to three years probation for reckless driving causing death — which he pleaded no contest to in April.

A no contest plea is not an admission of guilt but is treated as such for sentencing purposes. It can also offer some liability protection in civil cases.

Flentroy was working for Auxilio Services — which transports Hamtramck Public School students — when he reportedly struck the child with the bus, killing her. It happened July 16, 2024 while Flentroy was turning onto Burger Street from MacKay Street.

The child was transported to a local hospital where she died from her injuries.

Flentroy faced up to 15 years in prison and a fine. Sentencing was handed down May 15 by 3rd Circuit Judge Tracy Green.

New trial date in home invasion, shooting case; victim stabbed alleged assailant

Trial has been rescheduled for a Royal Oak man accused of shooting his ex-girlfriend after breaking into her house when she wasn’t there and then waiting for her to return.

The injured woman reportedly stabbed him in self-defense.

Jonah Lowe’s jury trial in Oakland County Circuit Court had been scheduled to start May 19, but due to witness illness it’s been pushed out to Aug. 25, court records show. Lowe, 27, is charged with first-degree home invasion, discharge of firearm at or in a building causing injury, unlawful imprisonment, assault with intent to do great bodily harm, assault with a dangerous weapon, and five counts of felony firearm for an incident last October in Madison Heights.

Police said Lowe contacted 911 from his Royal Oak home on the night of the incident and said he’d been stabbed in the neck by his girlfriend. Another 911 call came in from a 25-year-old woman who said she was Lowe’s ex-girlfriend, he had shot her, she stabbed him in self-defense and he had fled the scene.

The woman suffered a gunshot wound to the leg, police said.

An investigation showed Lowe entered the woman’s house and hid until she returned carrying her 2-year-old daughter, then approached with a handgun pointed at them and refused to let her leave, police said. The woman was reportedly able to obtain a kitchen knife and, when Lowe was distracted, stabbed him in the neck, police said. Lowe reportedly shot the woman as she fled the home with her child.

The woman made it to a neighbor’s house to get help, police said, and Lowe fled to his home in Royal Oak.

Lowe is held in the Oakland County Jail with bond set at $500,000. Of the charges against him, first-degree home invasion carries the highest penalty — up to 20 years in prison.

Judge Jeffery Matis will preside over the trial.

A jury trial is underway in Wayne County for a Detroit felon accused of murdering a Farmington Hills man four and a half years ago.

It’s the second trial for the case against 54-year-old Robert Lee Bailey, Jr., charged with first-degree murder, felony murder, armed robbery, felon in possession of a firearm, and four counts of second-degree felony firearm in connection with the death of Darius Whiting. A trial late last year ended in mistrial.

Prosecutors allege Whiting was killed on Sept. 22, 2020 during an armed robbery in Dearborn. Police officers dispatched the next day to an alley on Schlaff Street, near Michigan Avenue and Schaefer Road, found Whiting’s body in a car.

It was subsequently determined Whiting died from multiple gunshot wounds, according to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office. He was 49 years old.

Bailey was arrested five months after the slaying. His criminal history includes a prior conviction for second-degree murder; he was released from prison in June of 2020 and on parole at the time Whiting was killed.

Judge Mark Slavens of Wayne County’s third judicial circuit is presiding over the trial.