DETROIT – A former Tuskegee airman and Detroit business owner became a victim of carjacking on Saturday, March 2.
89-year-old Jesse Rutledge came to Detroit while serving the country and lived in the city most of his life.
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Rutledge was leaving his barber shop near Van Dyke and Harper when a group of men who were hiding in a nearby abandoned building approached him.
"They put the gun right up to my face, right up there," says Rutledge. "So I did what he said."
The men took off in Rutledge's vehicle. The man who fought in wars and though he had seen in all in the city was now speechless. Rutledge says the one that held him up at gunpoint was only a kid, and was barely tall enough to see over the wheel.
"I couldn't imagine somebody that do that ... that small."
Now, for the first time in his life, Rutledge is afraid to return to his barber shop.
"I don't know whether I want to go back there or not. I don;t know. Cause I know if I go back there, I'll think about the situation I was in."