Detroit Suspect fatally beat man with rifle, Jewell Jones to plead guilty, female crash test dummies

WEDNESDAY NEWS HIT - Detroit police described a brutal scene at a home on the city's west side, where they found the naked body of a man who had been chained to a dog cage.

Antoine Jamal Powers-McClain allegedly invited a man in his 50s and a woman to his home to shovel snow around 6 p.m. Sunday. Once the people were finished, Powers-McClain offered the two crack cocaine and asked them to go into the basement of his home in the 9100 block fo Stout Street. 

Police said the victims went down to the basement, where Powers-McClain allegedly threatened them with a rifle then hit the man with the firearm, killing him. 

"We found the victim suffering from his injuries deceased in the basement of the home, and he was actually disrobed and in a cage in the basement of the home," Detroit Police Chief James White said.

The woman told police he then assaulted her with the rifle and threatened to kill her if she told anyone what happened. Powers-McClain is then accused of driving the woman to an apartment building in the area of 9600 Greenfield the next morning, where she escaped from his car. 

Police then got a 911 call from a Coney Island a few blocks south of the apartment. She is in critical condition.

"From a person simply shoveling snow to not waking up the next day is kind of eye-opening," said one neighbor.

The rifle used in the murder was found and police currently working to see if it was involved in any other crimes. 

Powers-McClain is 5-feet-9-inches and about 170 pounds. He has shoulder-length dreads. Police are asking for help from the public in locating him, but advise not to approach him. 

"If anyone comes in contact with him, it's very important you notify your local police. If it's on the south side, if it's in Detroit, to notify the Detroit Police Department. We ask nobody attempts to detain or apprehend him and let the police handle it," said White. "Again, he is to be considered armed and dangerous."

Lawmakers call on use of better crash test dummies

Statistics show that female drivers are more likely to be seriously injured in crashes than males. "A female driver is 73% more likely than a male driver to be severely injured in a vehicle accident and 17% more likely to die," Michigan Congresswoman Brenda Lawrence said.

Lawrence and 65 other lawmakers are urging the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to use more accurate, updated female crash test dummies. "The female crash test dummy which we get all our data from most commonly used are scaled down versions of a male," Lawrence said. According to the NHTSA, test dummies represent the 50th percentile for males. For females, it is the 5th percentile, which is a body that is 4 feet, 11 inches tall and weighs 108 pounds. Lawrence said that isn't an accurate representation of female drivers.

A statement from the NHSTA reads in part, "Real-world data suggested that the smaller females (not 50th percentile) were at greater risk of incurring injuries." The statement goes on to say, "Thus, the agency uses a 5th percentile female crash test dummy in various frontal crash tests to ensure optimal occupant protection (including protection of ‘average females’) in vehicle designs."

Dr. Trevor Eckenswiller, who works in the emergency room at Beaumont Troy, said the disparities in data show that something needs to change. "We see car crashes every day at the ER and prevention is really the most important thing," he said. "When we are having such staggering differences in mortality especially, something needs to be looked at."

Jewell Jones to plead guilty

An Inkster lawmaker who spent much of 2021 embattled in the court system following an arrest on suspicion of drunk driving will plead guilty to charges of resisting and obstructing police, operating a vehicle while intoxicated, possessing a weapon while intoxicated, reckless driving, and escape of lawful custody.

In exchange, Rep. Jewell Jones will have resisting arrest and DUI charges dropped. Additionally, the felony charges will be dismissed if he completes a youth sentencing program. Jones initially rejected a plea deal in December and planned to take his case to trial later in February. 

He will likely be sentenced to probation and would not have to resign from office. After news that he was taking the plea deal surfaced, the lawmaker posted two apology letters to his Instagram that he said he sent to the Michigan State Troopers who responded that day.

One of the letters reads in part: "We ‘Black’ men have a hard enough time in our struggle for justice, and already have enough enemies as it is, to make the drastic mistake of attack each other and adding more weight to an unbearable load." He went on to say, "Though I believe things were mishandled that day on I-96, I played a role in the fiasco."

$700M investment for Detroit schools

Many schools in the Detroit Public Schools Community District will be upgraded thanks to a $700 million investment announced Tuesday. "When you look at the overall state of the school buildings, they’re not where they should be for children or employees," said Superintendent Dr. Nikolai Vitti. The investments should tough about 80% of the district.

The money, which comes from COVID-19 relief funding, will also go toward construction of some new buildings. "On the one hand, you're going to see new school buildings, so we’re proposing a new building for Cody High School, a new building for Pershing High School," Vitti said. "We’re also reactivating some smaller buildings with the emphasis on pre-K."

There’s also a new building proposed for Paul Robeson and Malcolm X Academy. The district hopes the plan will bring back students who have left Detroit schools. "We know there are about 30,000 students, actually probably more, who live in the city and do not attend school at DPSCD," Vitti said. "We want to get to a point where Detroiters think again about sending their kids to the neighborhood schools, and that’s why we are accelerating the revitalization of the city and of the district."

School board members are excited about the investment. "I’m glad we are looking at innovation with respect to our school buildings. I'm really looking at ways that we can advance and improve that," said  Sherry Gay-Dagnogo, a Detroit school board member at large. Public meetings are planned to hear community input.

When Covid vaccine boosters wane 

A new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows when COVID-19 vaccine booster effectiveness begins to drop. "The study in the U.S. looked at a large number of people, the Vision Network, and I think it was ten states worth of data," said Dr. Matthew Sims, the director of Infectious Disease Research at Beaumont Health. "It looks like, according to the study, at about four months you start to wane in your protection."

The findings show that vaccine effectiveness against Covid-related emergency room and urgent care visits plus hospital stays was higher after the third dose than after the second dose but decreased over time. Doctors say that the results show that as the virus evolves and produces variants, the vaccine needs to change also.

"Over time the vaccine will evolve and the omicron specific vaccine I think will be necessary," Sims said. The recent CDC report also shows that a booster dose of the Pfizer and the Moderna vaccines still offer high levels of protection against severe Covid-19 despite the fact that protection can decrease over time.

Doctors are still urging people to get vaccinated. "Once we know the cycle we will have a better idea where we’re going, but everyone has to remember we’re early in this, but it’s killed millions of people, and we’re just trying to prevent it from killing more," Sims said.

What else we're watching

1. The city of Dearborn is pairing high school students with a bit of neighborly help. A snow shovel program will put students to work shoveling driveways and sidewalks for elderly residents.  
2. Southfield police will provide an update to a chase that began in the city before traveling to Detroit. Speeds of 100 mph were reached on I-696 during the chase. 
3. Ferris State is defending its decision to suspend a professor after he released a video with profanities and bizarre rants ahead of the school year. The university is arguing keeping the professor on could damage the school's reputation. A hearing for the case is scheduled in March. 
4. Dundee Police are investigating a homemade ‘Drano bomb’ that exploded Tuesday night. According to police, a second device was also found in the area before Michigan State Police were called to remove it. 
5. The Detroit health department is handing out up to 10 free KN-95 masks to residents from 2-6 p.m. Feb. 17. The drive-thru locations are at several Eastern Market and community center locations. 

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Daily Forecast

A very active day of weather is ahead of us as wind will draw warm temperatures in, which will lead to heavy rain Wednesday night. That's expected to freeze and turn to slush before snow on Thursday. Up to 8 inches could fall.

US sea levels will rise rapidly in the next 30 years, report warns

America's coastline will see sea levels rise in the next 30 years by as much as they did in the entire 20th century, with major Eastern cities hit regularly with costly floods even on sunny days, a government report warns.

By 2050, seas lapping against the U.S. shore will be 10 to 12 inches (0.25 to 0.3 meters) higher, with parts of Louisiana and Texas projected to see waters a foot and a half (0.45 meters) higher, according to a 111-page report issued Tuesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and six other federal agencies.

"Make no mistake: Sea level rise is upon us," said Nicole LeBoeuf, director of NOAA’s National Ocean Service.

The projected increase is especially alarming given that in the 20th century, seas along the Atlantic coast rose at the fastest clip in 2,000 years.

LeBoeuf warned that the cost will be high, pointing out that much of the American economy and 40% of the population are along the coast.

However, the worst of the long-term sea level rise from the melting of ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland probably won’t kick in until after 2100, said ocean service oceanographer William Sweet, the report’s lead author.