Arrest made in case where phone snapped pic of thief in Detroit

DETROIT – An arrest has been made in the robbery and shooting of a Detroit man whose smartphone captured a picture of the suspect.

Octavius Brown was sitting in his car outside of his house Monday night when a guy tapped on the window and asked to bum a cigarette.

"I've never been shot in my life. I've never been held up by a gun before, ever," said Brown. "He said, 'Hey man, can I get a cigarette?' And I looked at him like, 'Can I help you?' He lit the cigarette. He gave me the lighter back. Then he did like this, 'Hey man, give me your (expletive)!'"

Brown put what the suspect asked for -- his cellphone and his wallet -- on his passenger seat. However, that wasn't enough.

"He shot me in the arm, I was doing like this (arms up) trying to block. So it went through my arm on this side, and it came out over here. That means he was trying to kill me," said Brown.

But Brown survived. Then he got a second stroke of luck: The "Find My Phone" app which was installed on his Android kicked in big time.

"My phone had a lock on it where it could only open if I had my finger print on it," he said.

After 5 minutes of someone trying to unlock the phone, the app does something extra:

"It will snap a picture of the person trying to open the phone," said Brown.

The picture of the suspect was sent directly to Brown's email.

"It was a picture of the same guy who approached me at my car. It was this guy. And he had on the same clothes!" said Brown.

Brown sent the picture directly to Detroit police. Police on Friday morning said they had the suspect in custody.