Royal Oak Woman Hides In Closet During Home Invasion
POSTED: Wednesday, January 27, 2010
UPDATED: 12:46 pm EST January 28, 2010
ROYAL OAK, Mich. -- One of six people accused of being involved in a Royal Oak home invasion earlier this week was arraigned Thursday on unarmed robbery and conspiracy charges.
Darius Lewis, 20, a college student from California, was arraigned in 44th District Court. His bond was set at $200,000.
Royal Oak police said a woman hid in a closet with her two young children early Monday morning as a group of men who allegedly followed her home from work kicked in her front door.
Royal Oak Police Lt. Gordon Young said the woman was walking home at about 3 a.m. Monday from her greeter job at the gentleman's club Cheetah's when she noticed a dark Impala following her.
When the woman approached her home on Dorchester Street, Young said she again noticed the car without its lights on.
Once inside her home, Young said the woman called 911 and woke up her two children, ages 6 and 7, and a 19-year-old baby-sitter.
“They’re coming in my house right now … they’re going to break in,” the woman can be heard telling a 911 dispatcher.
Young said while the four were hiding in closets and a bathtub, at least two men broke into the house and yelled "ATF police, get down!"
Officers from the Royal Oak Police Department arrived and questioned two people inside two cars that were parked outside the house.
During that time, the two men who had broken into the house fled, Young said.
None of the people inside the house were harmed.
A short time later, a K-9 dog found two loaded semi-automatic handguns, a 9 mm and .40-caliber, under a bush on a nearby street and police set up a perimeter of the area with undercover officers.
Young said that just after noon Monday, officers noticed a car with three black males and female driver go past the victim's house several times.
Young said officers observed a man looking around the bush where the handguns had been found and took him into custody.
Police said the handguns were determined to be stolen.
Police said the four people who were seen driving in the car were arrested, in addition to the two people they arrested outside the house.
Aside from Lewis, the other five suspects, who police said ranged in ages from 17 to 20 years old, were questioned and released. But police said they could be taken back into custody and charged.
Police said they are not sure why the victim was followed, and that she has since moved out of the house on Dorchester Street.
“This is a very serious case. There’s very few similar cases that we’ve experienced here in Royal Oak like this,” Young said.
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