DETROIT – A manhunt is underway tonight on Detroit’s west side for a murder suspect with a lengthy violent criminal history.
What went down in the basement of a home on Stout Street has police pulling out all the stops to find this Antoine Jamal Powell McClain, the man they say is responsible for luring a man and woman to his house on Sunday (Feb. 13) to shovel snow.
“What we know right now is that it was a ruse,” said Detroit Police Chief James White. “It was just to get them into the home and get them in a position to do what he did.”
In return for shoveling snow, Powers-McClain lured the man and woman into the basement of his home with the promise of crack cocaine.
Surveillance cameras on homes in the neighborhood captured the two going in but never coming out. Neighbors who didn’t want to be identified had no idea what had happened until police arrived in the neighborhood on Monday (Feb. 14).
“Things like this is kind of shocking,” said a neighbor.
Police say Powers-McClain beat a man in his fifties to death with the butt of a long gun, stripped him naked, and then shoved him into a dog cage where he chained him.
He then started beating the woman but didn’t kill her. She told police he drove her to the block of Greenfield, where she jumped out and ran into a nearby Coney Island and called for help.
Chief White believes the woman is lucky to be alive.
“100% lucky, and she’s heroic to make her way out of that situation,” Chief White said.
Police say Powers-McClain is armed and dangerous, and getting him off the streets is a top priority.