DEARBORN, MI — A 72-year-old woman was carjacked at gunpoint in Dearborn by an 18-year-old.
She is physically well, but she claims that this has changed her entire life and that she is now constantly watching her back.
The defendant, Isaiah Marcellus Jones, later told police that he was “sick of walking” and intended to carjack the elderly grandmother.
“I thank God that I’m alive,” says the woman we’ll call “Deborah.”
She was carjacked after a man lurking behind a garbage surprised her at an ATM.
“It was very scary, very traumatic,” she added. “I just got so nervous, the most nervous I’ve ever been in my life.”
A Friday morning excursion to Zeal Credit Union on Michigan Avenue ended with a gun pointed at her face.
“He had the pistol in his hand and the first thing he said was, ‘Give me your keys,’ and I said, ‘Please don’t harm me. “Please do not shoot me,” she said.
He demanded her car keys and handbag, then refused to let her take her cell phone.
Police claim Jones drove away, forcing “Deborah” to walk a half-mile to the closest open store for assistance.
“My purse can be replaced, but my life cannot be replaced,” she told me.
Dearborn police swiftly focused on Jones. They surveilled him and arrested him in Southfield the same day.
Police Chief Issa Shahin reported that officers also recovered the revolver he reportedly used to frighten Deborah.
“People who prey on the vulnerable and prey on the elderly and children – I agree with you, Jessica, they’re dangerous,” Shahin told the audience. “And we need to make sure and protect our community and our officers from those individuals.”
Jones was arraigned Sunday and granted a $50,000 personal bond by 36th District Magistrate Malaika Ramsey-Heath. This meant that he wouldn’t have to put up any money to be released from detention.
“A personal bond for a violent offense like this is extremely rare and it’s out of the ordinary,” Shahin informed reporters.
Given the charges, Dearborn police are quite worried and bewildered by the decision.
“It’s a capital offense, the penalties in the state of our life imprisonment,” Shahin told reporters.
Dearborn’s Chief Judge Sam Salamey held an emergency hearing on Monday before releasing Jones, reducing his bond to $50,000. He is still in custody.
It brought some consolation to Deborah, who says her life is just different now.
“I’m terrified now; I’m paranoid,” she explained. “I look around everywhere I go now.”
Magistrate Ramsey-Heath made headlines in 2022 for a similar low bond issue involving a gunshot. William C. McConico, the chief judge of the 36th District Court, declined to comment on the carjacking, the case, or the low bond.