A Windsor man facing a dozen firearms and other charges after a 10-month police probe of gunfire in a central Sarnia neighborhood has been granted bail.
A Windsor man facing a dozen firearms and other charges after a 10-month police probe of gunfire in a central Sarnia neighborhood has been granted bail.
About midnight on Feb. 23, 2022, two men in a black Ford Focus hatchback outside a home near Kathleen and Walnut avenues drove off when a man who believed they were watching his house approached, Sarnia police said at the time.
When the Focus returned, the man followed it in his pickup to a dead end on Kathleen Avenue, where someone in the car’s passenger seat fired four or five shots from a handgun at the truck, police said. The man rammed the car with his truck and followed as it left, but lost sight of the car on Indian Road.
After a confrontation between two parties, who didn’t know each other, multiple people were shot at, police said. The shooting happened before and after the suspect vehicle was cornered, they added.
No one was hurt and no handgun was found, but officers did recover bullets from the scene, police said.
After a long investigation, a Windsor man was arrested in early December by Canada border officers while crossing the Windsor-Detroit border, Sarnia police said.
Mack’al Larenz Blythe, 22, of Windsor, was charged with two counts each of discharging a firearm with intent, assault with a weapon, pointing a firearm and failing to comply with a release order, and single counts of possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose, unauthorized possession of a firearm, knowledge of unauthorized possession of a firearm and occupying a motor vehicle knowing there was a firearm.
The charges include allegations of attempting to wound, assaulting, and pointing a firearm at Robert Tupy and Kaitlynd Hillier, court records show.
Blythe was held in custody pending a bail hearing, police said in December. Following nearly 30 court appearances, Blythe, who turned 23 last week, was released on bail recently and will return to court in about a month, court records show.
Blythe was released to two sureties – his aunts – on a $7,500 bail plan that features GPS tracking and house arrest. He has to live with one of them at their Windsor homes and can’t leave aside from a few exceptions.
He also can’t contact seven people, including Tupy and Hillier, and is banned from weapons.
With files from Tyler Kula and Paul Morden, The Observer
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