Man Linked To Missing Women Charged In Shooting
HAMTRAMCK (WWJ/AP) - One of three men sought by police in the reported kidnapping of two Hamtramck women has been charged in an earlier shooting.
Brandon Cain was arraigned via video Thursday in Detroit's 36th District Court on assault with intent to murder and other charges. He pleaded not guilty and was ordered held on a $500,000 bond. He's due back in court March 15.
The charges against Cain stem from a Feb. 8 shooting in Detroit. He was arrested Wednesday night while reportedly turning himself in to Detroit police.
A friend of 18-year-old Abreeya Brown and 21-year-old Ashley Conaway said Cain allegedly got upset when the women left his home on the city's westside on Feb. 8. Detroit Police say it's alleged that Cain ordered a known black male to fire shots at the women. One of the bullets grazed Conaway in the head.
"He kept calling her (Conaway), telling her 'I'll give you $5,000 a piece if you don't tell on me, I'm sorry baby, I love you,' and all that. And I'm like 'Quit answering the phone for him,' and she actually got her number changed that day when she got kidnapped, the day before," the friend told WWJ's Vickie Thomas.
Brown's stepfather, Charles McGinnis, called police about 10 p.m. Tuesday to report that Brown and Conaway had been kidnapped and that he had exchanged gunfire outside the home on Andrus Street with two men who abducted them.
When officers arrived, the women were gone. Shell casings were on the ground and the home they shared with McGinnis was riddled with bullets. McGinnis told police his stepdaughter and Conaway were in front of the house when two armed men forced them into a car and drove off.
Cain's attorney, Wright Blake, said the 26-year-old denied any role in the women's disappearance. But Brown's mother, Lois, thinks Cain is responsible for the abduction, saying he forced the women into a trunk at gunpoint because he didn't want them to testify against him.
Cain initially was one of two men identified by police as persons of interest in the case. Police say 34-year-old Andre Todd-Douglas was questioned Wednesday after turning himself in at Hamtramck police headquarters. Police later named a third person of interest, 24-year-old Bryant Lee, who was arrested at his girlfriend's home in Pontiac.
No one has been charged in the possible abduction and disappearance of Brown and Conaway, and the women have yet to be found.
"We still haven't located any additional information on the whereabouts of the two victims at this point," Hamtramck police Detective George Voight told WWJ Newsradio 950 Thursday.
Meantime, as the anxious families await word on the missing women, some community groups are taking matters into their own hands. Read more, here.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Hamtramck Police at 313-876-7803 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-SPEAK-UP.
Stay with WWJ Newsradio 950 and CBSDetroit.com for the latest.
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