Dearborn police target loud cars, drive-by shooting over lawn decor, $10M lawsuit over assault on school bus

WEDNESDAY NEWS HIT - Dearborn police have a new traffic safety initiative they're starting: clamping down on loud vehicles.

Revving engines, modified mufflers, and any other excessive noise coming from a car will be met with a citation from police, following an uptick in complaints from residents over loud cars.

The complaints stem from loud car noises particularly in local neighborhoods. 

"The big complaint we get today are quality of life concerns regarding loud mufflers, excessive noise, and revving of engines, especially in our neighborhoods," said Cpl. Dan Bartok in a clip on Facebook.

Comments on that post indicated that residents were indeed tired of the trend and thankful for the action.

Anyone caught will be cited for a vehicle code violation. 

Residents can also submit a complaint to the police department by calling 313-943-3030 or going to this link. 

It's one of the first new tasks delegated by Dearborn's new police chief, Issa Shahin. He said traffic and road safety have been the top priority following reports of several crashes this year. 

Among the other public safety threats that Shahin has come across is the TikTok trend that young people have been mimicking that included firing water-absorbent polymer beads called Orbeez at random people. 

According to police, an 18-year-old was arrested and faces an assault charge for partaking. At least 15 cases have been reported in the city. 

Home targeted in drive-by shooting for decorative skeleton in front yard

A local family was left shaken after a drive-by shooting of their house early Tuesday. Luckily, they were not harmed but the what-ifs are playing over, and over in their heads. "I had a child in the house," said Alicia Bonanno. "He was sound asleep, nothing woke him up. "I’m telling you, it felt like an earthquake." 

The family lives on Beech Daly between Six and Seven mile roads in Redford. Home surveillance video caught the silver sedan drive by – firing at least five shots. "I went to work this morning shaking - I can’t stop shaking," she said. The couple says they don’t have a clue who would want to hurt them. They don’t have any enemies but they think their outdoor decorative skeleton figure might have been the intended target.  

"Maybe somebody just wanted to shoot at the skeleton to see if they could hit it," said Donavan Richardson. That’s "Skelly boy." Donovan bought it for his wife Alicia a few years ago. He hasn’t gone anywhere since, and even gets a new outfit every month. "I didn’t expect it to be this big of a deal or famous," Richardson said.

All they can think is he was the one the shooter was after. "There’s very few people that dislike it and say it’s an eyesore and that they would hate to be our neighbors," Richardson said. "But all of our neighbors love it." Thankfully in addition to no injuries, there was no damage to the home or the couple's cars.

Great Lakes Water Authority unveils improved infrastructure

For the governing body of much of Metro Detroit's water infrastructure, 2021 was a bad year. Pump failures, submerged highways, and residential flooding all contributed to the bug that's turned into a feature of spring and summer weather in Southeast Michigan.

Heavy flooding last year prompted an investigation by the Great Lakes Water Authority, which has since replaced its CEO and connected problem pump stations to a more reliable energy network. "I’m hoping 2021 was an anomaly - I keep saying that - but we’re preparing like it wasn’t," said Suzanne Coffey, the interim CEO. 

"We're excited to announce Freud and Blue Hill pump stations have been converted to reliable power to our partner with DTE power," said Navid Mehram, GLWA. "Those three transformers are new (and) it has three independent power sources from DTE." Key testing was also undertaken to ensure the pumps will work during strained periods. 

Additionally, the GLWA plan to convert two more facilities to reliable energy. They also installed power and quality monitors and will do more to keep the community up to date about the status of heavy storms. 

Oakland County man lived with corpse for month, taken in for questioning

A northern Oakland County man was found to be living with a dead body inside the home for about a month, according to the sheriff's office.

The 76-year-old male was said to be in the bedroom sleeping, according to the adult male resident when Oakland County Sheriff's Deputies visited for a wellness check, in Independence Township. But the deceased was discovered in a bathroom after investigators were granted permission to enter the home.

At that point the resident told deputies he had been dead for a month inside the residence in the 7800 block of Caerfae Trail. The resident was transported to the Independence Township Substation to be interviewed by detectives. Detectives and an Investigator from the Oakland County Medical Examiner’s Office are looking into the cause of death.

Investigators have not said what relation the living resident had to the deceased or his age.

Mom sues school bus company after son's alleged assault

When Talysha Oldham saw the video, her heart dropped. Her child, 6-year-old Adriel, was reportedly sat on and struck by a school bus driver as he was heading home from Fisher Magnet Lower Academy last December. Now, she's entered a $10 million lawsuit against ABC Student Transportation, its former bus driver, and a Detroit public schools employee. 

"Even if he was hard to restrain or was having a meltdown because of his autism they could’ve stopped the bus," she said. "They could’ve pulled the bus over, they could’ve called dispatch, they could’ve called me. I would have stopped whatever I was doing, to come get my child."

But no one called her. She instead found out about what happened from a student-recorded video on social media. The family's attorney said Adriel was diagnosed with a mild case of traumatic brain injury after the incident. 

DPSCD says an investigation cleared its employee of any wrongdoing, but ABC Student Transportation fired the bus driver. The district says it sent a recommendation to the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office to press criminal charges against the bus driver, but so far no charges have been filed.

What else we're watching

1. State police have concluded the deceased female found under an overpass on I-696 died by suicide after authorities located her vehicle above. The investigation shut down southbound lanes in Farmington Hills for the morning.
2. A verdict in the Whitmer kidnapping trial has still not been reached and jurors will enter their third day of deliberations when they return to the courthouse Wednesday. Four men are on trial for conspiring to kidnap Michigan's governor. 
3. Another big groundbreaking is scheduled in Detroit Wednesday, this time at the Southwest Greenway near the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy. Once completed, it expand access to green space and connect it to the Michigan Central Mobility Innovation District in Corktown. 
4. The Detroit City Council has approved the legal sale of pot in the city. Applications for recreational grow and resale licenses will be processed starting on April 20 - yes, that April 20. 
5. Detroit City FC dominated in a win against the Michigan Starts Tuesday night. The home win came in convincing 3-0 fashion. The victory was in the second round of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. 

Live on FOX 2

Daily Forecast

Wednesday will start out dry, but spotty showers are on the forecast for the afternoon. It's going to be like this for the rest of the week, including Opening Day in downtown Detroit. 

Twitter edit feature in the works, company says

Twitter is working on an edit feature and yes, this is for real.

The social media giant announced on its account on Tuesday that the company had been working on an edit feature since last year.

"We’ve been exploring how to build an Edit feature in a safe manner since last year and plan to begin testing it within @TwitterBlue Labs in the coming months," Jay Sullivan, Twitter’s head of consumer product, tweeted. 

While it was noted Twitter users have been asking for an edit feature for many years, Sullivan said it would take time to create an edit option that could not be misused and allow full transparency of public records.

"Without things like time limits, controls, and transparency about what has been edited, Edit could be misused to alter the record of the public conversation. Protecting the integrity of that public conversation is our top priority when we approach this work," Sullivan continued.