Aaron Brantley, 86, of Detroit talks about being carjacked on his way home from Bible study. While he pumped his gas, someone hit him from behind, breaking his leg, and then grabbed his keys and stole his new car. Brantley estimates that at least four people walked past him as he crawled for help. William Archie/Detroit Free Press, February 24, 2012Posted by Nicholas Stix
My hunch is that the folks ignoring Mr. Brantley assumed that he was drunk, on drugs, or crazy.
Of course, these are the same folks who are always paying lip-service to the need for blacks to help each other.
Forget it, Jake. It’s Detroit.
Surveillance video: Passers-by ignore injured, crawling carjack victim, 86: Aaron Brantley, 86, a World War II Air Corps veteran, knocked to the ground during a carjacking on Detroit’s west side, crawled across the gas station parking lot as people walked by. No one stopped to help, he says. BP station surveillance video
86-year-old carjacked in Detroit -- and no one stopped to help, he says
February 25, 2012
Detroit Free Press
97 Comments
By Tammy Stables Battaglia
Detroit Free Press
The 86-year-old World War II Air Corps veteran, knocked to the ground during a carjacking on Detroit's west side, crawled across the gas station parking lot as people walked by.
No one stopped to help, he says.
Aaron Brantley, who worked for 31 years as a welder at a Chrysler plant in Hamtramck, recalled the ordeal Friday, two days after he was robbed outside the BP gas station on West McNichols at Fairfield, just east of the University of Detroit Mercy campus.
Brantley estimates that at least four customers walked past him as he struggled for help, unable to walk because his leg was broken.
"I never bothered anybody, and I always try to help somebody else when I could," he said Friday from home, his leg in a soft cast to his hip and not a tinge of bitterness in his voice.
Brantley was on his way home from Bible study at Corinthians Baptist Church in Hamtramck, where he's a trustee, when someone hit him from behind and grabbed his keys at 10:40 a.m. Wednesday. The thief drove off in Brantley's 2010 Chrysler 200 -- bought to replace another car recently stolen.
"I noticed when I was crawling to the gas station, people were walking past by me like I wasn't there," he said. "I said, 'Lord, have mercy.' I said, 'Lord, some of them didn't even look around, just going to get their gas.' "
Once Brantley got inside the gas station, the shocked attendant, Haissam Jaber, 37, and other customers called for help.
"I've seen everything in here, but I couldn't believe it happened at 10 o'clock in the morning," said Jaber, who has worked at the station for 10 years. "And he actually pushed him down. It was a bad scene. He must be on drugs or something -- to push an old guy like this is sad. They do anything these days."
It took so long for an ambulance to arrive, Brantley said, that he offered cash to a stranger to take him home. The Good Samaritan refused the money and drove him anyway. The ambulance met Brantley at home and transported him to Sinai-Grace Hospital.
"I thought they ran over my leg," he said. "I didn't know what happened -- I didn't see him. When he had hit me and knocked me down on the ground, I went to get up and couldn't get up. So I crawled into that filling station there."
A few hours after the carjacking, a man found Brantley's name and phone number in his Bible, still on the car's front seat, and called him. The car had been abandoned on the city's east side, the wheels and radio missing.
Detroit police spokeswoman Sgt. Eren Stephens said no one has been arrested, and the case is under investigation.
"Whenever a member of our community -- but especially a senior citizen -- becomes a victim of crime, it is very upsetting and disturbing," she said, requesting anyone with information to call police or Crime Stoppers.
Brantley said he's not angry about what happened, although it's the second time someone stole the tires off his new car. He said he's not going to move out of the city, as his children are recommending. He and his daughter, Dena Brantley, 34, who lives with him, are staying.
"We're understandably upset, but ... it could've been worse," Dena Brantley said about the reaction of his eight children. "The guy could've shot him. We're glad he's alive, but we're just upset. You went through this for a set of tires and a radio?"
The Rev. Joseph Jordan, pastor at Corinthians Baptist Church for 39 years, said Brantley has been a key member of the church for years, known as a handyman always willing to help with repairs and upkeep.
The Bible study the day Brantley was carjacked was about Romans Chapter 16, a message of thankfulness and helping others, the pastor said.
"If you see someone crawling, you stop and see what you can do to help him," Jordan said. "I think that's just a human act. But I think we're getting away from that because we don't want to get involved. Jesus got involved with people and meeting the people's needs -- wherever they were."
Anyone with information on the crime is asked to call the 12th Precinct's Investigative Operations at 313-596-1240 or Crime Stoppers of Michigan at 800-SPEAK-UP (800-773-2587).
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Surveillance video of suspected carjacker of 86-year-old Aaron Brantley, at a gas station on Detroit's west side on Wednesday, February 22, 2012.
Suspect arrested in carjacking of 86-year-old war veteran
March 2, 2012, 9:54 a.m.
By Tammy Stables Battaglia and Bill Laitner
Detroit Free Press
A 21-year-old man was arrested early today in the carjacking of an 86-year-old World War II veteran last week.
Detroit Police arrested the suspect at 1:30 a.m., less than 24 hours after the department released surveillance video showing a man following Aaron Brantley, 86, on Feb. 22, Detroit Police Sgt. Eren Stephens said. She said no further information was available this morning about the arrest.
The incident — at a BP gas station on Detroit’s west side, in the 3300 block of West McNichols near University of Detroit Mercy — sparked anger last week because no one stopped to help Brantley as he crawled across the gas station’s paved apron with a broken leg after the carjacker knocked him to the ground. A few hours later, his car was recovered on the city’s east side, its wheels and radio missing. Brantley’s Bible from the Bible study he had attended earlier in the morning was still on the front seat.
In the video released Thursday, a man walks into the gas station convenience store on Feb. 22, eyeing Brantley’s back as the Chrysler retiree pays for his gas. He steps outside just before Brantley is ready to leave.
After the thief took Brantley’s 2010 Chrysler 200 — bought to replace another car recently stolen — Brantley called to bystanders for help, then began crawling across the station’s pavement, he recalled Thursday.
Reached at his Detroit home where he’s recovering from his broken leg, Brantley said: “I’m just very glad that (the carjacker) didn’t hurt me worse. He could’ve shot me.”
Since then, Brantley has received an outpouring of support from as far away as Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, with strangers emailing and calling to offer
everything from flowers and dinner to cash and cards.
"Oh Lord, I’ve got a lot of response from it, even people from Canada have been calling and talking to me," he said. "Washington, D.C., Albuquerque, Buffalo, New York. It makes me feel good that people are interested in what happened, of course."
Brantley's granddaughter, Dena Brantley, 34, who lives with him, said she hopes the incident sends a message to others.
"I hope that people will stop -- if they see a crime, they stop and help the person, whether the person’s my age, my son’s age," she said, alluding to her 14-year-old son. "I just hope they stop and help and make it to where nobody feels that the world’s beating you up."
The Wayne County Prosecutor's Office said this morning that it has not yet received a warrant request in the case.
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