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Local attorney plays crucial role in helping end Dearborn gunman barricade

Gunman surrendered at 8:30 p.m. on Thursday

DEARBORN, Mich. – A local attorney spent hours on the phone with the gunman at Dearborn’s Hampton Inn on Thursday, helping him to surrender to police.

Attorney Gabi Silver spent over 4 hours on the phone with the 38-year-old gunman, who was barricaded inside the hotel on the third floor after a 55-year-old hotel clerk from Riverview had been shot. Silver kept the gunman calm till he surrendered at 8:30 p.m.

Silver said she didn’t personally know the suspected gunman but knew a member of his family.

“I tried to encourage him to come out safely. I tried to promise him that no one was going to hurt him. It was clear that was not what the police were trying to do. The police were amazing, patient -- they really were,” Silver explains.

Dearborn police Chief Issa Shahin said the gunman got into an argument around 1:09 p.m. on Thursday at the Hampton Inn on Michigan Avenue in Dearborn.

“It was a confrontation over the bill,” Shahin said. “I don’t know if they were preparing to evict him for noise or a disturbance, but that’s what originated the problem. He was upset about asking for a refund.”


About the Authors
Shawn Ley headshot

Local 4 Defender Shawn Ley is an Emmy award-winning journalist who has been with Local 4 News for more than a decade.

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