Tragedies Topped Public Safety News in Farmington, Farmington Hills in 2011

Farmington-Farmington Hills Patch published nearly 200 stories this year about incidents and crimes handled by the Farmington Hills Police and Fire departments and the Farmington Public Safety Department. Here are some of the cases that attracted the most interest from our readers:

Murder-Suicides

• In October, found  after an apparent murder-suicide at Green Hill Apartments near Nine Mile and Halsted roads. According to a press release issued by the Police Department, the man's wife called 911 to report that her husband had assaulted her. Shots were fired inside the residence shortly after police arrived on the scene. 
• Police said a at the couple's Orion Court home in August. A department press release noted that officers responded to home near 12 Mile and Middlebelt roads to check on their well-being and found a 53-year-old man dead in one room of the home while his 52-year-old wife was found dead in another room.

Fire death in Farmington

of injuries she suffered in an October fire at Jamestown Apartments. Her death was the first fire fatality in Farmington in more than 20 years, Director Bob Schulz said. Public safety officers responded to a call about smoke in the building's second-floor hallway and discovered fire in a bedroom of the woman's second-floor apartment. The woman was found lying on the floor.

Armed robberies

• In what may have been the quickest arrest of the year, Farmington Hills Police took three men into custody just two hours after the first incident in a this month. Bryan Michael Heard, James Robert Dall and Alvin Bernard Nelson, all of Farmington Hills, were taken into custody after a series of robberies at pizza parlors in Farmington, Farmington Hills and Southfield.
• A  sergeant said no one was injured but that at least one shot was fired at a  in November. "I've seen a lot of robberies," Sgt. Alan Patterson said. "This one is particularly a little disturbing in that they never made any demands. They came in with guns drawn." No arrest has been made.
• In June, on Grand River as employees were preparing to close, then he left the store with an undetermined amount of cash, placed in a red backpack with yellow straps that was decorated with a children's cartoon. No arrest has been made.

Hit-and-run incidents

Dec. 15 in the area of 13 Mile and Halsted roads. She had left her home and was standing in the road when a vehicle that was traveling east on 13 Mile struck her. According to police, the vehicle continued traveling eastbound on 13 Mile Road after striking Goetz. It then briefly pulled to the side of the road and continued east on 13 Mile Road. Police said they have located the driver, but they have not identified that person. 

was taken to  in July after a red vehicle — a pickup, van or sport utility vehicle — struck him and continued west on Interstate 696 near Farmington Road. The victim had just been involved in an accident and had stopped on the left shoulder of the roadway. He was walking toward the other vehicle on the right shoulder of the road when he was hit. The victim, Tim Lash, was hospitalized for weeks, and Botsford staff helped him attend his daughter's wedding, via the Internet. 

Dogs rescued from house fire

firefighters were able to from a home on Bridgeman that was destroyed by fire in April. Homeowner Brenda Barnett said firefighters brought the dogs out of the house on stretchers. The dogs were treated with special oxygen masks and were taken to a veterinary hospital in Novi, Lt. Denny Hughes said.

CVS thefts arrest

In mid-February, in connection with more than 15 incidents of liquor theft at the downtown Farmington . According to a release issued by the department, the man admitted to officers that he gave the bottles of liquor to a third party in exchange for heroin. 

Copper Creek fire

Patch readers alerted us to billowing smoke in the area of 12 Mile and Halsted Road in late January as at . Farmington Hills Fire Dept. Lt. Denny Hughes said that when firefighters arrived, they identified flames not only above but also below the interior crews battling the blaze inside. Single-digit temperatures, wind and ice made the entire fire scene a challenge for the more than 30 firefighters from three stations who responded, Hughes said. No injuries were reported.