Former Mayor Makes Impromptu Return To Crimefighting Roots
HIGHLAND PARK (WWJ) - Highland Park's former mayor took matters into his own hands after an anonymous person led him to a stash of weapons.
Hubert Yopp said he got a phone call from an unidentified man who said he wanted to turn in some weapons. Yopp asked the man to bring the firearms to the police.
"He said he's not doing it. And I asked him 'Were they used in a homicide or did they break in a house to get them?' He said no and hung up," Yopp told WWJ's Vickie Thomas.
Then, a second call came in.
"He said he dropped those guns off, so I said where, and he says on the Hamilton alley between Eason and Puritan, he says there's a church there. I know the area and there is a church there. I rode the alley and I didn't see anything. But then I saw this garbage bag and I saw the barrel sticking out. I looked in the bag and it's four or five guns in there," he said.
So, Yopp took them in himself.
"To get them off the street is a good thing because recently all we see is shootings with these teenagers and these children. I think it's about time the police departments get together and do some regional sweeps," he said.
Yopp, who spent 31 years in law enforcement before becoming mayor, lost his last re-election bid and has since returned to detective work as a private eye. He said the level of crime right now is out of control.
"I have not seen anything like this, like the other day, a 15- or 16-year-old carjacking with AK-47's, shooting up a home and hitting this little baby," he said.
In that case, Detroit Police arrested two 15-year-olds in the shooting death of a 6-year-old boy. Police say on Feb. 26, the teens approached a car, one of them carrying an assault rifle, and fired shots, hitting the child in the back seat. The teens are awaiting trial.
Prior to that, on Monday, Feb. 20, 9-month-old Delric Miller was shot to death when someone sprayed his family's home on Greenview with gunshots. The house was riddled with about 40 bullets from what appears to have been an AK-47-type assault rifle. No arrests have been made.
Weeks earlier, on Jan 31, 12-year-old Kade'jah Davis was killed following a verbal altercation about a cell phone at her home on Ferguson, near Seven Mile on Detroit's northwest side. A 19-year-old man and his 35-year-old mother were arrested.
Earlier this week, more than two dozen law enforcement officials joined together to announce an "unprecedented" initiative aimed at curbing the tide of violent, deadly crime in Detroit. Read more, here.
