Socially distancing on St. Patrick's day, Tesla crashes on auto-pilot, panhandler left bloodied at store | FOX 2 Detroit

Socially distancing on St. Patrick's day, Tesla crashes on auto-pilot, panhandler left bloodied at store

A party store in Detroit had its doors closed Tuesday night and tagged with the letters 'BLM' after community uproar over the owner's treatment of a woman who was panhandling outside.

Conflicting accounts from the owner and the woman mean Detroit police will have much to sort out in the coming days. 

But footage of a woman with blood dripping from her face onto the floor left an unambiguous tone about what had happened prior to the camera turning on.

Andrea Warren was left bloodied and stunned after an altercation with a co-owner of Brandon's Liquor Store on Puritan and Coyle in Detroit. The 48-year-old woman said she was attacked on Friday. Her relatives agreed.

"He came out and grabbed her by the back of her collar drug her in the store, and started beating on her like she was a man," said a relative of Warren.

But Bassam Yatooma, the man accused of hitting her said that wasn't true. "I did not punch her," he said. "She spit on my face - and my mother and father not even a year ago, died two months apart from Covid, so I'm paranoid."

"When she spit in my face, I grabbed her by her collar and took her to the ground to avoid getting spit on again."

When pressed for how someone could start bleeding after being grabbed, Yatooma said he was shocked as well.

"I didn't mean or intend any of that happened."

Yatooma said he took her to the ground after she refused to leave the store after she panhandled in the area for three hours. 

The video began making the rounds on social media shortly after the incident happened. The subsequent outcry for punishment grew as community organizers gathered outside the liquor store on Tuesday afternoon. 

Store owner Bassam Yatooma.

Store owner Bassam Yatooma.

The protests prompted workers to close up shop.

"I don’t care what allegedly the sister may have done," said Teferi Brent who was among those who gathered. "There’s nothing that can justify you beating her continuously."

Shawn Smith, who was at the store Friday and whose daughter recorded the video said they never saw Warren spit on the owner.

Police say they're investigating the incident, reviewing surveillance footage and interviewing witnesses.

Safety and social distancing a top priority on St. Patrick's Day

After a year of practicing social distancing and mask-wearing, Michigan residents can now put what they've learned to the ultimate test when they venture out to the bars and restaurants for St. Patrick's Day today.

After a virtually non-existent celebration last year, bars are opening with reduced capacity, spread-out tables, mask mandates, and other safety features. The Old Shillelagh shows us how they're doing it. 

"For our outside part and our second and third floors, you are sitting at a table, our server will come up to you. You can have your mask off at the table," said Ian Davis. "But you gotta put it back on if you want to go to the bathroom or change floors."

A holiday like St. Patrick's Day presents several worst-case scenarios for health officials who'd prefer people stay away from each other. But with vaccinations ramping up fast, many are beginning to eye the end of business restrictions with hope. 

Another Tesla crash - this time into a cop

A 22-year-old man from Lansing struck the rear-end of a Michigan State Police car while his Tesla was on autopilot.

The officer had originally pulled over after a car had struck a deer on I-96 near Waverly Road in Eaton County. No injuries were reported to the police officer and the driver was given a citation for failure to move over. 

This is the second Tesla-involved crash involving suspicions of the car's auto-drive feature in two weeks after another Tesla drove into a semi-truck last week.

The federal government's highway agency is investigating whether there is a larger issue with Tesla's autopilot feature after its been present in several crashes.

Man charged with running over pregnant mother

A Wyandotte man is facing charges after he was identified as the driver in a fatal hit-and-run that killed a pregnant woman and her unborn child in Southgate over the weekend.

Raymond John Alkewich, 31, is charged with failure to stop at the scene of an accident when at fault, resulting in death. However, a pending toxicology report could result in additional charges.

Police say a 35-year-old victim and her fiance were crossing southbound Fort Street near Superior around 7:45 p.m. when she was hit by a vehicle. Driven by Aklewich, he fled the scene after striking her.

He was taken into custody without incident after being located. His bond was set at $2 million.

Raymond John Alkewich

Mother stabbed to death had been caught in abusive relationship

On Saturday, Valencia Burden had confided in a family member about the toxicity of the relationship she was in and it was going on too long. On Sunday, no one from the family could reach her.

And then on Monday, Detroit police found her stabbed to death and the person responsible gone. Her son Tracy is sharing his mom's story in hopes it may save someone else caught in an abusive relationship.

"I know it's easier said than done but try your hardest to get out of the situation. this could be the end result and you don't want that," he said on Tuesday.

The suspect turned himself in days later, but it did little to fill the void left open by Valencia's death. "We just need love and support right now," her son said.

Walled Lake student fighting expulsion after posting video of teacher in bathroom

A Walled Lake Central High School student is pushing back against punishment the school district is enforcing after they recorded a Zoom mishap with his teacher who mistakenly forgot to turn off her camera when she went to the bathroom.

The 15-year-old allegedly posted the video on social media, resulting in discipline and potential expulsion from the district. But his lawyer said the district has it wrong and it should be the teacher who should be reprimanded.

"As if students trying to learn remotely didn’t have enough stress, this student is being castigated for taking a video of his teacher doing something incredibly shocking in front of her whole class; and in a moment of ‘Can you believe this?’ he shared it with his friends and is now being wrongly scapegoated in order to protect the adult teacher," Colin Daniels, attorney at Rockind Law said in a press release.

In a letter to parents last week, the district said that choices by "both staff and students" had "compromised social integrity."

A wrongful conviction, now a possible death sentence

A Chaldean threatened with deportation faces persecution and possible death if he were taken back to Iraq because of violence against Christians in the country. But for Waleed 'Tony' Isho, who spent 13 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit, obtaining citizenship has been nearly impossible.

"I've been out here - about 18 years since I've been out of prison - and I followed everything immigration wanted of me. Everything," he said.

Isho was on a green card in 1989 when he was accused of firebombing a gas station after only 40 minutes of deliberation. He spent 13 years in prison for the wrongful conviction. And even after he was exonerated by a Wayne County Circuit Court Judge last year, he was never able to obtain citizenship.

"Citizenship was halted because the US government, as a result of his wrongful conviction, took away his green card - thereby taking away his right to become a citizen," said Marvie Neubauer, his attorney.

What else we're watching

  1. Doctors from Henry Ford Health System will discuss Michigan's first double lung transplant linked to COVID-19 during a news briefing today at 2 p.m.
  2. The Detroit News is reporting that the Westin Book Cadillac is closing after its owner was delinquent on a massive mortgage for the property. 
  3. The Metro Detroit branch treasurer for the AFL-CIO will be arraigned on embezzlement charges after she stole thousands of dollars from the union. 
  4. Internet gambling and online sports betting was so successful in its first few months of operations that it almost recouped financial losses from casinos in Detroit.
  5. The Michigan health department has put out a request for proposals to communities interested in providing support for opioid addicts.  

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Daily Forecast

It's going to be partly cloudy and pleasant St. Patrick's Day today. Temperatures will climb to 58 degrees. Anticipate some rain on Thursday.

White supremacist propaganda in US surged in 2020, ADL report says

White supremacist propaganda reached alarming levels across the U.S. in 2020, according to a new report that the Anti-Defamation League provided to The Associated Press.

There were 5,125 cases of racist, anti-Semitic, anti-LGBTQ and other hateful messages spread through physical flyers, stickers, banners and posters, according to Wednesday's report. That’s nearly double the 2,724 instances reported in 2019. Online propaganda is much harder to quantify, and it's likely those cases reached into the millions, the anti-hate organization said.

The ADL, which was founded more than a century ago, said that last year marked the highest level of white supremacist propaganda seen in at least a decade. Its report comes as federal authorities investigate and prosecute those who stormed the U.S. Capitol in January, some of whom are accused of having ties to or expressing support for hate groups and antigovernment militias.

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