This is a personal account and I’ll incorporate the facts from the police reports the best that I can. I may get corrected by my wife, kids or Jimi’s siblings too.
Mothers Day,
If my memory serves me right Jimi called and asked what we were doing for the day, Then he said he was going to cut the grass and things around his house and he’s be out later in the morning. He arrived at our house and after he wished his sister a happy mothers day he informed her that we were going to go to the cemetery to visit Mom’s grave and to lay flowers. Willie said that she didn’t want to go but, Jimi told her that she didn’t have a choice (as only Jimi could). So off we went to the cemetery, from there Jimi and Willie decided to go to the “Old” neighborhood and drive by the house that they grew up in. We did, and Jimi noticed that one of the neighbors was home and suggested that we stop in and say hello, again Willie said “No” lets just go home. So we turned around and went to visit the neighbor (Mr. & Mrs Troe) because Jimi said it’s a good idea. After our visit we got back in Jimi’s car and headed for home (Jimi’s low fuel light came on and the warning bell sounded on the ride home), once home I ordered carry-out from a little restaurant close to home and Jimi and I went and picked up dinner. After dinner I think we watched the television and just chatted, we may have even sent one of the kids out for Dairy Queen too. Jimi left our house at around 11:30 or so and that was the last time we saw him alive…….
The next chain of events will be based on things that we know as facts discovered through the process of police reports, bank statements and confessions of the two that caused this tragedy
Jimi stopped at a gas station on Warren Ave. just off of the I-94 expressway and put gas in his car (the low fuel light had come on while we were out during the day). We know this because of the bank statement. (he used his debit card) From the gas station he went west on Warren (we don’t know why) and he drove past the Southfield freeway (we don’t know definitively why). He drove to the parking lot of the funeral home at the corner of West Warren and Artesian (the parking lot is on the South West corner). He was exiting the parking lot (the car was pointed East) when Randy and Calvin walked up on the drivers side, Randy tried to open the drivers door and found it to be locked. He didn’t say anything to Jimi he just fired two shots through the drivers window. Jimi sped off across Artesian and into another parking lot, past the funeral home and hit a parked car behind the bar next to the funeral home……
This is a civilian witness account and I’ll generalize and not use their exact words:
I had left the Adam’s Apple bar and was exiting the parking lot onto Artesian. I noticed a SUV in the parking lot across Artesian and there were two people standing next to the SUV, one at the drivers door and the other standing behind him. I turned right onto Artesian and pulled up to a red light at W. Warren. I heard what sounded like two gunshots, I turned to look toward the SUV and the two guys were running away. I turned right and pulled back into the parking lot of the bar and saw the SUV crash into a parked car behind the bar.
I’ll continue to add facts from the police reports and so fourth as I read through the thousands of pages of documents this has generated. If you have questions, please do not hesitate to ask…… lmaison@maisonmartialarts.com
Thanks for the “Kick in the pants Mr. Blandford, I’ll get back to writing soon.
To Be Continued…………..
Again folks I do apologize for my lack of writing, It’s really difficult to do. It’s not that I don’t want to write it’s just that every time I sit down to do it I have to read through more of the reports and that’s just harder than I could have imagined. So if someone has a pleasant story please write it!
AJ