WARREN, Mich. – A man was punched in the head and knocked unconscious at a Cub Scouts meeting inside the cafeteria of a Warren school because he had gotten into an argument with the attacker’s relative over a parking space, police said.
The attack happened around 7:05 p.m. Tuesday, April 18, at Roose Elementary School on Marcy Avenue.
Officials said a 47-year-old Center Line man went to the school for a Cub Scouts meeting, but while he was in the parking lot, he got into an argument with a woman who had parked in a blue disability space without a permit.
Warren police said the argument was “brief and minor.”
The man went into the Cub Scouts meeting, and the woman called her relative, Tyrone Sledge, 26, of Warren, to tell him what had happened, according to authorities.
Sledge drove to the school, went into the cafeteria, and found the 47-year-old man. The Cub Scouts meeting was actively in progress at the time of the confrontation, police said.
Sledge told the man he was armed, threatened him, and then punched him in the head, officials said. The man was knocked unconscious from the attack, according to authorities.
“This case is a sad example of a minor argument over a handicap parking space resulting in serious injuries to a victim,” Warren police Commissioner Bill Dwyer said. “All too often, we hear stories of relatively minor incidents resulting in shootings, serious assaults, or other unnecessary acts of violence.”
Warren police officers and firefighters were called to the school and took the 47-year-old man to Royal Oak Beaumont Hospital, where he was listed in critical condition.
“Thankfully, the victim’s condition has improved as he is now conscious and stable,” Dwyer said. “The fact that this suspect barged into a Cub Scout meeting and assaulted the victim at an event designed for children and families shows the brazenness of this incident.”
Investigators interviewed witnesses and checked surveillance footage before identifying Sledge as the attacker, they said.
Macomb County prosecutors charged him Wednesday with assault with intent to do great bodily harm -- a 10-year felony.
Officials are still searching for Sledge, who has ties to the area of 10 Mile and Hoover roads in Warren. He has no previous criminal convictions.
“We are urging this suspect to turn himself in to the Warren Police Department,” Dwyer said.
Anybody with information on Sledge’s whereabouts is asked to call the Warren Police Department at 586-574-4700.
