Dating Site Meeting Turns To Armed Robbery Ordeal

By, Crystal A. Proxmire

 

On Friday Ferndale Police were called to Beaumont Hospital after a 48-year-old male victim reported being beaten, robbed and held against his will beginning Thursday night at his Ferndale home.  The victim had met the main assailant through www.megamatesmen.com, an online dating service, just over a week ago.  The night of the attack was supposed to be their second date, according to police.

 

According to police the suspect came to his home for a date and said he had to go to his car to get something, and then returned with another male suspect, a hammer and a handgun.  The second suspect has been identified by police as a 29-year-old black male in “a long wig and women’s clothes,” named Johnny Clarence Bryant.  Police say Bryant’s “street name” is either “Key” or “Keya.”

 

The victim said the men beat him with the hammer and took his ATM card.   The suspect in the wig then went to the Shell Gas Station on Woodward in Pleasant Ridge and withdrew $100, which was the card’s limit.  The suspect returned upset and the two men proceeded to beat the victim further, hitting him with the hammer and choking him with a belt.  They left him tied to a chair and stole several items from his home.

 

The victim escaped and made it to the hospital around 1 P.M.  Ferndale Police worked with US Marshals and the Narcotics Enforcement Team (NET) and arrested one of the suspects, 27 year-old Charles Justin Campbell early Saturday morning.  Campbell has been arraigned on charges of armed robbery, felony firearm possession, felon in possession of a firearm, and possession of marijuana.

 

The second suspect, 29-year-old black male Johnny Clarence Bryant has been arrested and police are still investigating what they may charge him with.  Anyone with information on the case is asked to call The Ferndale Police at 248-541-3650. 

 

The gun, the hammer and the victims’ property were recovered at a home on Hogarth St. in Detroit.  Police say that the victim will recover.