WARREN, Mich. – Three men were arrested last month after a Lyft driver called Warren police to report passengers who were acting suspicious, according to authorities.
The Lyft driver called Warren police around 10 p.m. June 25 to request a welfare check, officials said.
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Police said the driver texted his wife after he noticed suspicious activity by four men he transported. He told her that he felt unsafe and was concerned for the safety of the public.
He said he had picked up the men at two different stops in Detroit.
The men placed bags in the trunk of his vehicle and asked him to make multiple stops, including one at a gas station, where they removed a bag from the trunk and placed it in another vehicle, according to authorities.
Officers located the vehicle at Hawthorne Suites on Civic Center Road in Warren.
Police said the men were uncooperative and disregarded comments.
Mikal Cooper and Bradford Walton were sitting in the back seat of the vehicle with loaded handguns, officials said.
Devin Howard approached the vehicle and officers and was both verbally and physically confrontational, police said. He had to be taken to the ground and subdued with pepper spray before officers could handcuff him, according to police.
Howard caused minor injuries to officers, police said.
"The bravery of the Lyft driver reporting the suspicious activity of his passengers must be commended," said Macomb County Prosecutor Eric Smith. "We have two defendants carrying unregistered, loaded, .40-caliber weapons. This driver likely prevented a very serious crime from happening in Macomb County."
Cooper, 22, of Detroit, and Walton, 20, of Harper Woods, were charged with carrying concealed weapons, a five-year felony.
Howard, 22, of Detroit, was charged with two counts of assaulting/resisting/obstructing a police officer causing injury, a four-year felony, and one count of assaulting/resisting/obstructing a police officer, a two-year felony.
The three men were arraigned June 26 at 37th District Court in Warren.
Walton and Howard were released on bond. Cooper is being held in lieu of $25,000.
They have all been bound over to Macomb County Circuit Court and are scheduled to be arraigned July 29.