Details Come Out… Library Parking Lot Gun Incident

Details Come Out in Preliminary Exam on Ferndale Library Parking Lot Gun Incident
(Crystal A. Proxmire, Sept. 5, 2014)
Robert James Reid is one step closer to trial for the Aug. 20 incident involving a gun in the parking lot of the Ferndale Public Library. Reid is being charged with three counts felony assault after three women say Reid pulled a gun on them and threatened to shoot them in the parking lot. His preliminary hearing was held Thursday, Sept. 4 at 43^rd District Court.
The women say they did not know Reid, and that he threatened them for no reason. Yet Reid’s attorney questioned one of the women about having a nephew who was in jail because Reid’s family had testified against him in a previous court case. Her nephew was one of two men convicted of using a gun to rob men who were playing dice in a driveway in Royal Oak Township in 2012. The woman claimed that Reid had nothing to do with her nephew’s incarceration. The prosecutor stated that even if there was a previous connection between them, it did not change the crime that took place that day.
The women – a mother, daughter, and niece – had been at the library using the computers, and had gone outside when they were done. The women were by a vehicle, with the mother smoking a cigarette, waiting for a friend to bring the niece’s children back from going to get frozen yogurt.
The mother testified she was having a cigarette when Reid walked by. She said they exchanged hellos but then Reid turned back and said “What the @$%& you looking at?”
“Me being a parent I took over the situation. I said, ‘we ain’t looking at nothing.’”  She said that some words were exchanged but that Reid walked on.
While she was on the phone with her husband, Reid circled back around to his pickup truck a couple of spaces away, and then returned.
“He walked up with a gun. He was flashing it, saying ‘I should kill all you mutha &#$%ers.’ I was pleading for my life, waving my arms back, begging [daughter] and [niece] back, saying I don’t want them to argue with him. The more I’m talking the angrier he gets,” the mother said. She said “I presumed this man was gonna kill me….yeah I was scared, I pissed myself.”
The daughter described the altercation, stating “The gun was in his pants. He lifted his shirt and showed the gun. He pulled it out and got to pointing.” She said Reid moved the gun a lot, pointing it towards all three of them. She said he said “Now you scared. Now you all nervous.”
The daughter testified that “my mother was getting loud, we knew the police was gonna come.” The mother and the niece both called 911. The niece testified that she went to Reid’s truck to get the license plate number for police.
The women said that as they heard sirens, Reid went back to his truck.
A Ferndale police officer testified that he recovered a fully loaded handgun from the front seat of Reid’s truck. The women all testified as to seeing the gun, and that it was a silver gun with a black handle.
Police confirmed that Reid is a registered Concealed Pistol License holder.
The defense attorney asked questions that raised speculation about the events and the credibility of the witnesses, implying that the women had not been alone in the parking lot, and that two men with them may have started the verbal exchange.
Judge Joseph Longo ruled that there was enough evidence to send the case to the Oakland County Circuit Court, and stated that issues of fact and witness credibility would be matters to be worked out at trial.
 

Save this post to PDFPrint this post