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Transgender man shot with pellet gun, called homophobic and transphobic slurs in Pontiac

By and FOX 2 Staff
Published  July 18, 2023 8:45am EDT
Crime and Public Safety
FOX 2 Detroit

Transgender man shot with pellet gun, taunted with slurs

A Pontiac man was on his way to a gas station when he says someone shot him with a pellet gun from a car full of people and yelled slurs at him. The car took off, and now a reward is offered for information that leads to the suspects.

PONTIAC, Mich. (FOX 2) - A transgender man said he was headed to a Pontiac gas station Saturday night when someone in a car full of people shot him with a pellet gun and called him slurs.

Andrew Blake-Newton was riding in his motorized wheelchair on Baldwin near Bennett when the car pulled up.

"I don't remember seeing a gun. It just happened so fast," he said.

Blake-Newton said they laughed at him and yelled homophobic and transphobic slurs at him as the car left.

"I just remember the pain and the fear, I knew I had to get off the sidewalk," he said. "The shock. I have no idea what these people look like."

When he got home, his husband called 911.

Blake-Newton said he didn't see the suspects, but he remembered that they were in a beige sedan.

"I remember when the police pulled up because there were no lights on them, I was terrified that the people had come back to shoot me again," he said. "I started panicking, I started panicking really bad."

The Oakland County Sheriff's Office is offering a $1,000 reward for information.