DETROIT – Two men stole a pickup truck at gunpoint from a man who was trying to find a wallet that had been taken by children during a basketball game in Detroit, police said.
Kyrell Allen and Anthony Hopkins are accused of carjacking in a criminal complaint filed Thursday (Sept. 22).
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Wallet stolen during basketball game
Officials said two men were playing basketball with a boy around 7:50 p.m. Sept. 18 in the area of Mack Avenue and I-75 in Detroit.
The first man, who is not named in the complaint, had driven his father’s Ford F-150 to the basketball court. The second man’s wallet was stolen from the side of the court by an unknown child while the owner was playing basketball.
The men chased a group of children and caught up with two of them on the south side of Mack Avenue. The first man and one of the children got into the F-150 and picked up the second man on the south side of Mack Avenue, according to authorities.
Officials said the child told the driver of the truck to pull into the Brewster apartment complex and called the person who had taken the wallet.
The wallet thief came out of the apartment and returned the $30 in cash that had been inside. He told the owner of the wallet that he no longer had it because he had thrown it, the criminal complaint says.
The owner of the wallet asked the child to show him where it had been thrown, and the child agreed. They walked to the back of the apartment building while the driver parked the F-150.
While the man and the thief were behind the apartment building, the F-150 was approached by several people with guns, police said. The people were angry because they thought the owner of the wallet had “kidnapped” the child who stole it, court records show.
One of the armed men told the owner of the wallet to turn over everything, so he handed him the $30 that he’d just gotten back, authorities said.
“The group laughed at him and returned the money,” the criminal complaint reads.
Armed carjacking
When the owner of the wallet walked back to the F-150, the group followed him, officials said. A second group of people had surrounded the pickup by the time he got back.
Hopkins pointed a gun at the driver from the driver’s side of the truck, court records show. Allen pointed a pistol at the other man from the passenger’s side, according to authorities.
Hopkins ordered the driver out of the car several times, and when the driver tried to take off, Hopkins put the barrel of the gun on the man’s thigh and pulled on his clothing to remove him from the truck, officials said.
“Hopkins then took the car keys from (the driver) and told everyone to get out of the car and walk away,” the criminal complaint says. “Hopkins announced that if (the child in the car) moved, he should be shot in the back.”
Everyone got out of the car and walked away. Hopkins drove off in the F-150 while Allen left the scene in a Chevrolet Trailblazer, police said.
F-150 tracked
Later that night, authorities learned the stolen F-150 had tracking capability, and they located it in the 14000 block of Lesure Street in Detroit.
A man walked out of the house and got into a blue Chevrolet Trailblazer, so police followed it to the same Brewster apartment complex where the F-150 had been stolen. Officials said that’s where they lost sight of the man.
The following day, police located the F-150 in the area of Wisconsin and MacKenzie streets in Detroit. They followed it to the area of Livernois Avenue and Burlingame Street.
The truck pulled into the entrance of the Riverfront Towers, and a Michigan State Police trooper tried to perform a traffic stop in the parking lot. The truck fled at a high speed and went over the median, according to authorities.
Officials followed the truck east on Jefferson Avenue before discontinuing the chase in the area of I-375.
2 taken into custody
A short time later, troopers in a Michigan State Police helicopter told Detroit police that the F-150 had crashed on I-375 between Jefferson Avenue and Larned Street. Two people were running away from the crash scene, state police said.
The trooper in the helicopter said both men had climbed the embankment of the expressway to run east at Larned Street.
Detroit officers drove to the area and saw two men who matched the trooper’s description. They were taken into custody in the 1300 block of East Lafayette Street in Detroit.
Authorities said the men were identified as Hopkins and Allen.
While they were searching the area where Hopkins and Allen had fled, police said they found a Glock 30 model handgun near the intersection of Larned Street and I-75.
A citizen told police that one of the men had dropped a gun and the other had left a black and orange backpack on the fence. A detective found the backpack, and there was a Glock model 19 handgun inside, along with the ID card belonging to the man whose wallet had been stolen, according to authorities.
“It is likely that the bag was the victim’s property (and) that one of the carjackers’ guns was left in the bag by the carjacker to conceal it from law enforcement,” the criminal complaint says. “It is also likely that the gun/bag combination was removed from the car after the carjackers fled on foot to prevent discovery by the police who were actively chasing them.”
Both guns were loaded, officers said.
Police said a screen capture from surveillance video at the Riverfront Towers showed Hopkins and Allen inside the stolen pickup truck. That picture can be viewed at the top of this page.
The two men and the child who had been removed from the pickup truck at gunpoint were showed pictures of Hopkins, Allen, and others. All three of them picked Hopkins and Allen out of the photos and identified them as the carjackers, the criminal complaint says.
Hopkins, Allen charged
Officials interviewed Hopkins and Allen on Sept. 20, and they admitted to being present during the stolen wallet confrontation.
Hopkins admitted to leaving the Brewster Homes in his girlfriend’s Chevrolet Trailblazer on the night of the carjacking, authorities said.
Hopkins also admitted to driving the stolen F-150, court records show.
The complaint concludes Allen and Hopkins committed carjacking and using/brandishing a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.