Two Mich. women missing, suspected kidnapper charged in earlier shooting
(CBS/AP/WWJ) HAMTRAMCK, Mich. - One of the suspects in the reported kidnapping of two still-missing women has been charged with shooting at the women before they disappeared, reports CBS affiliate WWJ.
Brandon Cain, 26, was arraigned via video Thursday on assault with intent to murder and other charges stemming from a Feb. 8 shooting in Detroit where a friend of the two women alleges that Cain ordered another man to shoot at 18-year-old Abreeya Brown and 21-year-old Ashley Conaway, who have been missing since Tuesday.
One of the bullets grazed Conaway, who is reportedly Cain's ex-girlfriend, in the head.
The friend said that after the shooting, Cain "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.
Brown's stepfather, Charles McGinnis, called police about 10 p.m. Tuesday to report that Brown and Conaway had been kidnapped. According to the Detroit Free Press, police say Cain and another man came to the home Brown shares with her stepfather and Conaway and when the women refused to take money not to testify against them, a gun was placed to one of their heads and they were both forced into the trunk of a Crysler.
When officers arrived, the women were gone, shell casings were on the ground and the home was riddled with bullets. McGinnis told police two armed men forced his stepdaughter and Conaway into a car and drove off.
The Free Press reports that Conaway sent text messages to her cousin Tuesday night saying she was in the trunk of a car and identifying Cain as one of her kidnappers.
Cain's attorney, Wright Blake, said the 26-year-old denied any role in the women's disappearance. Police say 34-year-old Andre Todd-Douglas was questioned Wednesday after turning himself in at Hamtramck police headquarters. A third person of interest, 24-year-old Bryant Lee, was arrested at his girlfriend's home.
Cain pleaded not guilty to the shooting charges and was ordered held on a $500,000 bond.
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.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Hamtramck Police at 313-876-7803 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-SPEAK-UP.