Michigan
Man pleads to multiple felonies following assault, police chase
On Friday, Oct. 24, Darrin Rasheed Martin, 28, of Marion, pled no contest to multiple felony charges stemming from an assault and high-speed police chase spanning Wexford and Osceola counties on July 10, announced Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. Martin, who was charged in July, pled to two counts of Assault with Intent to Murder; one count of Discharging a Weapon from a Motor Vehicle; one count of Third-Degree Fleeing and Eluding a Police Officer; and two counts Possession of a Firearm by a Felon.
Under the plea agreement, Martin will serve 15-30 years’ incarceration on the Assault with Intent to Murder counts, along with a mandatory 2-year sentence for the Possession of a Firearm by a Felon charges.
On July 10, 2025, officers from Michigan State Police and the Wexford County Sheriff’s Office responded to a Cadillac home following multiple 911 calls from a witness to an assault. Police later made a traffic stop on a vehicle matching the description given by the caller, and in that vehicle was Martin. Martin fled the traffic stop, leading officers on a high-speed chase, firing several times at pursuing officers as he drove the vehicle, before crashing and rolling the vehicle several times off the side of the road.
Martin then fled the damaged vehicle on foot into an adjacent farm field. Officers pursued Martin into the field and, despite repeated verbal commands to drop the pistol he carried, Martin did not, and multiple times raised the weapon and pointed it at the officers. Officers fired upon Martin multiple times, thus ending the pursuit. Martin received medical care on site and at an area hospital, surviving his injuries. The Department of Attorney General reviewed the shooting by the Michigan State Police Troopers and found their use of force justified under the law.
Martin is scheduled to be sentenced on November 7 before the Honorable Kimberly Booher in the 49th Circuit Court in Osceola County.
New York
Ex-trooper on trial for murder is accused of using his car as a battering ram
KINGSTON N.Y. (AP) — A former New York state trooper was accused in court Tuesday of using his patrol car as a battering ram in a high-speed pursuit that killed an 11-year-old girl, a case one prosecutor called a “fatal abuse of power.”
Christopher Baldner faces multiple charges for his actions on the night of Dec. 22, 2020, after he pulled over a Dodge Journey driven by Tristin Goods for speeding. Goods was driving north on the New York State Thruway with his wife and two daughters for a holiday with family.
The trooper and the driver argued, and Baldner pepper-sprayed the inside of the vehicle. Goods drove off and Baldner pursued at speeds as high as 130 mph, twice ramming the SUV, causing it to lose control and flip over after the second impact, according to prosecutors.
“He used his patrol car as a weapon and rammed into the back of the Goods’ family car, not once, but twice,” Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Gashi told a jury in her opening statement.
Eleven-year-old Monica Goods was found dead inside the vehicle.
Gashi said Baldner’s actions that night were deliberate, willful and depraved. The case was not about a tragic accident, but a “fatal abuse of power,” she said.
Baldner was indicted in October 2021 on charges of murder, second-degree manslaughter and first-degree reckless endangerment. Three of the six endangerment charges stem from a separate 2019 case on the Thruway in which he is accused ramming the back of a Dodge Caravan with three people aboard, causing the vehicle to crash into a guard rail.
A defense attorney told the jury the prosecution was trying to “demonize” Baldner, who was dealing with a belligerent and uncooperative driver.
Tristin Goods refused to show the trooper his license and registration, or to provide his name. He was raging and swearing, despite pleas from his family to calm down, said attorney Anthony Ricco.
“New York State Trooper Baldner was laser-focused on a man who conducted himself that way in front of his wife and children,” Ricco said.
Ricco said Baldner did not act out of depravity.
Baldner had radioed dispatch that night that the SUV had rammed his vehicle, according to court papers. Ricco told the jury it was possible the SUV decelerated before impact.
Baldner. has been free on $100,000 bail. He retired in 2022 after almost 20 years with the state police.
The trial is expected to take several weeks.
Michigan
Man bound over to circuit court on felony fleeing and eluding charge
A 49-year-old Sterling Heights man was bound over to the circuit court to face charges including Second Degree Fleeing and Eluding, a 10-year felony, according to Macomb County Prosecutor Peter J. Lucido.
On Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, Everett Lee Smith was scheduled for a Preliminary Exam before Judge Suzanne Faunce in the 37th District Court in Warren, MI. Smith chose to waive his right to the exam and was bound over to the circuit court.
Smith will be arraigned before Judge Diane M. Druzinski at the Macomb County Circuit Court in Mt. Clemens, MI on Monday, Nov. 10, 2025, at 1:30 p.m. He is being held at the Macomb County Jail with bond set at $75,000 cash/surety.
It is alleged that on Tuesday, September 9, 2025, Warren Police officers attempted a traffic stop on a white van wanted in connection with a felony fleeing and eluding incident from the previous day. The vehicle failed to stop and fled from officers who were in full uniform and operating marked police vehicles.
The driver and registered owner of the van, identified as Everett Smith, allegedly disregarded a red traffic signal at Groesbeck Highway and Eight Mile Road, colliding with multiple vehicles. One motorist was transported to the hospital with chest pains as a result of the crash.
It is further alleged that Smith fled on foot from the driver’s seat, ignoring officers’ verbal commands to stop and warnings that a Taser would be deployed. Officers subsequently discharged their Tasers and successfully apprehended Smith.
Michigan
Man charged for attempting to stab police officer with a screwdriver
A 32-year-old Eastpointe man was bound over to the circuit court to face serious charges including Assault with Intent to do Great Bodily Harm related to his arrest for shoplifting, according to Macomb County Prosecutor Peter J. Lucido.
On Monday, Joshua Mills was scheduled for a Preliminary Exam before Judge Kimberley A. Wiegand in the 41st District Court in Sterling Heights. Mills chose to waive his right to the exam and was bound over to the circuit court.
Mills will be arraigned before Judge Richard L. Caretti at the Macomb County Circuit Court in Mt. Clemens, MI on Monday, Nov. 10 at 9:30 a.m. Mills is requesting a criminal responsibility assessment though the forensic center. He is being held at the Macomb County Jail with bond set at $500,000 cash/surety.
It is alleged that on Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025, Sterling Heights Police were called to assist at the Walmart Store on Van Dyke in Sterling Heights, MI. It is alleged that Joshua Mills exited the store without paying for merchandise. When offices identified themselves, Mills ran and an officer pursued him. The officer deployed his taser, striking Mills. As Mills was lying on his back, an officer attempted to place him under arrest.
Mills quickly sat up and attempted to stab the officer in the face with a screwdriver. He narrowly missed stabbing the officer. After a tussle, Mills was taken into custody.
Virginia
Trial starts in $40M lawsuit filed by a teacher who was shot by a 6-year-old student
A former assistant principal at a Virginia elementary school ignored multiple warnings that a 6-year-old student had a gun in the hours before he shot his teacher, an attorney for the teacher said Tuesday as trial opened in the woman’s $40 million lawsuit.
Abby Zwerner, a first-grade teacher at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, was shot in the hand and chest in January 2023 as she sat at a reading table in her classroom. Zwerner spent nearly two weeks in the hospital, required six surgeries and does not have the full use of her left hand. A bullet remains in her chest.
The lawsuit accuses former school administrator Ebony Parker of failing to act after four different people went to her with concerns that the student brought a gun to school.
Zwerner’s attorney, Diane Toscano, said in opening statements that Parker made “bad decisions and choices that day.”
Parker had the authority but failed to search the student, remove him from the classroom and call law enforcement, Toscano added.
The shooting occurred on the first day after the student had returned from a suspension for slamming Zwerner’s phone two days earlier, Toscano said. It sent shock waves through the military shipbuilding community and the country, with many wondering how a child so young could get access to a gun and shoot his teacher.
“No one could have imagined that a 6-year old, first-grade student would bring a firearm into a school,” Parker’s attorney, Daniel Hogan, told jurors. “You will be able to judge for yourself whether or not this was foreseeable. That’s the heart of this case.”
Hogan said that decision making in a public school setting is “cooperative” and “collaborative.” He also warned of hindsight bias and “Monday morning quarterbacking.”
“The law knows that it is fundamentally unfair to judge another person’s decisions based on stuff that came up after the fact,” Hogan said. “The law requires you to examine people’s decisions at the time they make them.”
Parker is the only defendant in the lawsuit. A judge previously dismissed the district’s superintendent and the school principal.
Parker faces a separate criminal trial next month on eight counts of felony child neglect — one for “each of the eight bullets that endangered all the students” in Zwerner’s classroom, prosecutors said.
Criminal charges against school officials following a school shooting are quite rare, experts say. Each of the counts is punishable by up to five years in prison upon a conviction.
The student’s mother was sentenced to a total of nearly four years in prison for felony child neglect and federal weapons charges.
Man pleads to multiple felonies following assault, police chase
On Friday, Oct. 24, Darrin Rasheed Martin, 28, of Marion, pled no contest to multiple felony charges stemming from an assault and high-speed police chase spanning Wexford and Osceola counties on July 10, announced Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. Martin, who was charged in July, pled to two counts of Assault with Intent to Murder; one count of Discharging a Weapon from a Motor Vehicle; one count of Third-Degree Fleeing and Eluding a Police Officer; and two counts Possession of a Firearm by a Felon.
Under the plea agreement, Martin will serve 15-30 years’ incarceration on the Assault with Intent to Murder counts, along with a mandatory 2-year sentence for the Possession of a Firearm by a Felon charges.
On July 10, 2025, officers from Michigan State Police and the Wexford County Sheriff’s Office responded to a Cadillac home following multiple 911 calls from a witness to an assault. Police later made a traffic stop on a vehicle matching the description given by the caller, and in that vehicle was Martin. Martin fled the traffic stop, leading officers on a high-speed chase, firing several times at pursuing officers as he drove the vehicle, before crashing and rolling the vehicle several times off the side of the road.
Martin then fled the damaged vehicle on foot into an adjacent farm field. Officers pursued Martin into the field and, despite repeated verbal commands to drop the pistol he carried, Martin did not, and multiple times raised the weapon and pointed it at the officers. Officers fired upon Martin multiple times, thus ending the pursuit. Martin received medical care on site and at an area hospital, surviving his injuries. The Department of Attorney General reviewed the shooting by the Michigan State Police Troopers and found their use of force justified under the law.
Martin is scheduled to be sentenced on November 7 before the Honorable Kimberly Booher in the 49th Circuit Court in Osceola County.
New York
Ex-trooper on trial for murder is accused of using his car as a battering ram
KINGSTON N.Y. (AP) — A former New York state trooper was accused in court Tuesday of using his patrol car as a battering ram in a high-speed pursuit that killed an 11-year-old girl, a case one prosecutor called a “fatal abuse of power.”
Christopher Baldner faces multiple charges for his actions on the night of Dec. 22, 2020, after he pulled over a Dodge Journey driven by Tristin Goods for speeding. Goods was driving north on the New York State Thruway with his wife and two daughters for a holiday with family.
The trooper and the driver argued, and Baldner pepper-sprayed the inside of the vehicle. Goods drove off and Baldner pursued at speeds as high as 130 mph, twice ramming the SUV, causing it to lose control and flip over after the second impact, according to prosecutors.
“He used his patrol car as a weapon and rammed into the back of the Goods’ family car, not once, but twice,” Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Gashi told a jury in her opening statement.
Eleven-year-old Monica Goods was found dead inside the vehicle.
Gashi said Baldner’s actions that night were deliberate, willful and depraved. The case was not about a tragic accident, but a “fatal abuse of power,” she said.
Baldner was indicted in October 2021 on charges of murder, second-degree manslaughter and first-degree reckless endangerment. Three of the six endangerment charges stem from a separate 2019 case on the Thruway in which he is accused ramming the back of a Dodge Caravan with three people aboard, causing the vehicle to crash into a guard rail.
A defense attorney told the jury the prosecution was trying to “demonize” Baldner, who was dealing with a belligerent and uncooperative driver.
Tristin Goods refused to show the trooper his license and registration, or to provide his name. He was raging and swearing, despite pleas from his family to calm down, said attorney Anthony Ricco.
“New York State Trooper Baldner was laser-focused on a man who conducted himself that way in front of his wife and children,” Ricco said.
Ricco said Baldner did not act out of depravity.
Baldner had radioed dispatch that night that the SUV had rammed his vehicle, according to court papers. Ricco told the jury it was possible the SUV decelerated before impact.
Baldner. has been free on $100,000 bail. He retired in 2022 after almost 20 years with the state police.
The trial is expected to take several weeks.
Michigan
Man bound over to circuit court on felony fleeing and eluding charge
A 49-year-old Sterling Heights man was bound over to the circuit court to face charges including Second Degree Fleeing and Eluding, a 10-year felony, according to Macomb County Prosecutor Peter J. Lucido.
On Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, Everett Lee Smith was scheduled for a Preliminary Exam before Judge Suzanne Faunce in the 37th District Court in Warren, MI. Smith chose to waive his right to the exam and was bound over to the circuit court.
Smith will be arraigned before Judge Diane M. Druzinski at the Macomb County Circuit Court in Mt. Clemens, MI on Monday, Nov. 10, 2025, at 1:30 p.m. He is being held at the Macomb County Jail with bond set at $75,000 cash/surety.
It is alleged that on Tuesday, September 9, 2025, Warren Police officers attempted a traffic stop on a white van wanted in connection with a felony fleeing and eluding incident from the previous day. The vehicle failed to stop and fled from officers who were in full uniform and operating marked police vehicles.
The driver and registered owner of the van, identified as Everett Smith, allegedly disregarded a red traffic signal at Groesbeck Highway and Eight Mile Road, colliding with multiple vehicles. One motorist was transported to the hospital with chest pains as a result of the crash.
It is further alleged that Smith fled on foot from the driver’s seat, ignoring officers’ verbal commands to stop and warnings that a Taser would be deployed. Officers subsequently discharged their Tasers and successfully apprehended Smith.
Michigan
Man charged for attempting to stab police officer with a screwdriver
A 32-year-old Eastpointe man was bound over to the circuit court to face serious charges including Assault with Intent to do Great Bodily Harm related to his arrest for shoplifting, according to Macomb County Prosecutor Peter J. Lucido.
On Monday, Joshua Mills was scheduled for a Preliminary Exam before Judge Kimberley A. Wiegand in the 41st District Court in Sterling Heights. Mills chose to waive his right to the exam and was bound over to the circuit court.
Mills will be arraigned before Judge Richard L. Caretti at the Macomb County Circuit Court in Mt. Clemens, MI on Monday, Nov. 10 at 9:30 a.m. Mills is requesting a criminal responsibility assessment though the forensic center. He is being held at the Macomb County Jail with bond set at $500,000 cash/surety.
It is alleged that on Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025, Sterling Heights Police were called to assist at the Walmart Store on Van Dyke in Sterling Heights, MI. It is alleged that Joshua Mills exited the store without paying for merchandise. When offices identified themselves, Mills ran and an officer pursued him. The officer deployed his taser, striking Mills. As Mills was lying on his back, an officer attempted to place him under arrest.
Mills quickly sat up and attempted to stab the officer in the face with a screwdriver. He narrowly missed stabbing the officer. After a tussle, Mills was taken into custody.
Virginia
Trial starts in $40M lawsuit filed by a teacher who was shot by a 6-year-old student
A former assistant principal at a Virginia elementary school ignored multiple warnings that a 6-year-old student had a gun in the hours before he shot his teacher, an attorney for the teacher said Tuesday as trial opened in the woman’s $40 million lawsuit.
Abby Zwerner, a first-grade teacher at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, was shot in the hand and chest in January 2023 as she sat at a reading table in her classroom. Zwerner spent nearly two weeks in the hospital, required six surgeries and does not have the full use of her left hand. A bullet remains in her chest.
The lawsuit accuses former school administrator Ebony Parker of failing to act after four different people went to her with concerns that the student brought a gun to school.
Zwerner’s attorney, Diane Toscano, said in opening statements that Parker made “bad decisions and choices that day.”
Parker had the authority but failed to search the student, remove him from the classroom and call law enforcement, Toscano added.
The shooting occurred on the first day after the student had returned from a suspension for slamming Zwerner’s phone two days earlier, Toscano said. It sent shock waves through the military shipbuilding community and the country, with many wondering how a child so young could get access to a gun and shoot his teacher.
“No one could have imagined that a 6-year old, first-grade student would bring a firearm into a school,” Parker’s attorney, Daniel Hogan, told jurors. “You will be able to judge for yourself whether or not this was foreseeable. That’s the heart of this case.”
Hogan said that decision making in a public school setting is “cooperative” and “collaborative.” He also warned of hindsight bias and “Monday morning quarterbacking.”
“The law knows that it is fundamentally unfair to judge another person’s decisions based on stuff that came up after the fact,” Hogan said. “The law requires you to examine people’s decisions at the time they make them.”
Parker is the only defendant in the lawsuit. A judge previously dismissed the district’s superintendent and the school principal.
Parker faces a separate criminal trial next month on eight counts of felony child neglect — one for “each of the eight bullets that endangered all the students” in Zwerner’s classroom, prosecutors said.
Criminal charges against school officials following a school shooting are quite rare, experts say. Each of the counts is punishable by up to five years in prison upon a conviction.
The student’s mother was sentenced to a total of nearly four years in prison for felony child neglect and federal weapons charges.
