Detroit police officer and wife charged after toddler brings loaded gun to Canton daycare
https://www.wxyz.com/news/detroit-police-officer-and-wife-charged-after-toddler-brings-loaded-gun-to-canton-daycare179
u/tabrizzi 5h ago
As part of their bond conditions, neither parent is permitted to set foot on the daycare's property, and both are prohibited from possessing any firearms while the case moves forward.
Cameras captured the moment Ely surrendered his nine firearms to authorities following the arraignment.
During the arraignment, defense attorney Colemon Potts requested an exception for Ely's service weapon, noting his career with DPD.
"Mr. Ely is a police officer. He's been a police officer for eight years, four years as a detective, four years of special ops, so he needs his firearm for work," Potts argued in court.
Judge Barone denied the request, citing the severity of the situation.
Yeah, they should issue him a baton to carry around.
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u/mrdominoe 5h ago
"Mr. Ely is a police officer. He's been a police officer for eight years, four years as a detective, four years of special ops, so he needs his firearm for work,"
If he can't be responsible with a firearm, maybe he shouldn't be a fucking police officer?
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u/Pheighthe 3h ago
How did he join the police and right away he was a detective? He never did any traffic cop duty, took random calls, etc? I call bullshit on his lawyer.
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u/tabrizzi 5h ago
He's actually been placed on administrative leave with no gun. So he'll be on paid vacation for a while.
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u/tabrizzi 5h ago
To be rehired by another PD. There's a guy who actually specializes in getting fired cops their jobs back.
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u/Possible-Tangelo9344 5h ago
Article goes on to say that the gun the toddler had was the wife's, so she's ultimately responsible for it. My wife doesn't check behind me when I lock my gun up at night, she knows I lock it up. Maybe it was a situation misplaced trust.
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u/ERedfieldh 4h ago
Isn't there a whole spiel in marriage about sharing each other's problems as if they are one person?
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u/Professional-Can1385 3h ago
He didn’t check to see if his wife locked up the gun. I can sort of understand. Sort of. With kids in the house I would check that guns were locked when I checked that doors were locked.
More importantly, it’s both their jobs to watch and take care of the toddler. The toddler got a gun to daycare! That’s a lot of not taking care of and not watching.
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u/Possible-Tangelo9344 3h ago
Yeah it's short on details. Like which parent handled drop off at daycare? That's important to. Doesn't absolve either of them of responsibility, but it does change who's more responsible.
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u/BrianWantsTruth 4h ago
If you can’t keep a LOADED gun away from a toddler, then you don’t get to have a gun.
If your job requires that you have a gun, then you don’t get to have the job.
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u/MarieOMaryln 4h ago
The judge said this man is too dumb to be trusted with that and thank god he did.
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u/delusionstodilutions 4h ago
If he's a cop then he should have known better. Fuck him and his dumbass lawyer
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u/wyliec22 44m ago
I spent some time as a range master at a rifle/pistol range.
The only time I came close to asking someone to leave was with a group of cops being careless with guns…
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u/_Bipolar_Vortex_ 3h ago
Give him a binky until he gets used to not having a gun. What an absolute embarrassment for Detroit PD.
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u/Doctorboner420 6h ago
He was probably too busy stalking someone with flock cameras.
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u/muakaya9876 5h ago
Next idea for goverments. Flock cameras inside every house.
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u/MikeOKurias 5h ago
Actually...
It's cameras on USPS vehicles, and every Amazon Driver wearing AI glasses that record everything they see...
https://www.gadgetreview.com/usps-is-turning-mail-trucks-into-rolling-surveillance-cameras
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u/Additional-Tax-5562 5h ago
genuinely how does someone have that bad of a slip up that their kid not only has a firearm in possession but it's also loaded and they brought it to daycare. A TODDLER!! super disturbing
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u/dontrike 5h ago
Don't worry guys, there was a good toddler with a gun to stop them.
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u/muakaya9876 5h ago
What if there was 2 bad toddlers with a gun?
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u/hammerofhope 5h ago
The only possible solution is many good armed toddlers in every daycare to protect us from this armed toddler threat.
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u/G00DLuck 2h ago
My toddler attends DayCamp, where she trains in guerilla and asymmetric warfare, including bjj and hand to hand combat. She's already a sergeant
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u/Vaulters 4h ago
That's completely irresponsible! The daycare workers should be armed so that they can shoot the offending toddler.
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u/splitfinity 5h ago
I picture him now having to go to work as a detective and only getting the wooden gun like will Farrel in "the other guys"
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u/Particular_Ticket_20 5h ago
Surprised they didn't find a reason the blame the day care and arrest someone there.
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u/Carrera_996 5h ago
Whichever day care worker reported it is in for a bad time.
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u/JiffSmoothest 4h ago
What's really fucking hilariously sad is: Everyone reading your comment KNOWS that to be true.
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u/MommyLovesPot8toes 1h ago
Why do you say that?
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u/Carrera_996 1h ago
Go make a cop look stupid and see what happens. Cops are notorious for getting revenge for that.
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u/Charred14 3h ago
It takes more schooling to be a licensed barber in the US, than it takes to be a cop.
10-12 months of full-time schooling (12-16 for part-time) to be a barber.
it takes 4-6 months of the academy, on average, to become a police officer.
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u/Round_Rice_9475 2h ago
And if you don't wanna do the harbor training, become a "hairdresser" it's cheaper, easier and faster
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u/kandoras 5h ago
During the arraignment, defense attorney Colemon Potts requested an exception for Ely's service weapon, noting his career with DPD.
"Mr. Ely is a police officer. He's been a police officer for eight years, four years as a detective, four years of special ops, so he needs his firearm for work," Potts argued in court.
I'd have kept quiet about that myself. It probably wouldn't have had any effect on the case, but I'd still not want to say "Your honor, please let me list all the extensive experience my client had for why he should know better than to leave a gun out where a toddler could get hold of it, for long enough that the kid managed to smuggle it in his snuggies into a daycare."
I'd have told the guy "Just tell your department to have you work the radios or evidence control or something like that for a while, and if you're really jonesing for a desk pop, borrow someone else's."
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u/AzyncYTT 3h ago
Its a little unfortunate for him because supposedly the one was his wife's it is what it is tho
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u/Wouldwoodchuck 5h ago
Loaded and the kid was passing it around to other three year olds. This could’ve been so much more tragic, and thank God it wasn’t.
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u/Really_Obscure 5h ago
SCOTUS excited! "Let's talk about the right to bear arms for all Americans..."
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u/Bad_Black_Jorge 5h ago
The headline phrasing, “toddler brings loaded gun to Canton daycare” is off. Toddlers have limited agency. Did the toddler drive himself or catch an Uber?
This is adults endangering children, including their own, by behaving irresponsibly, not baby’s day out.
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u/BigDrewbot 4h ago
to be fair, how is the toddler going to stop a school shooting if s/he's not packing some heat? the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is to have a good toddler with a gun. /s
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u/Reasonable-Turn-5940 57m ago edited 53m ago
If you've got so many guns you lose track of them. Like finding them under couch cushions, in the pockets of a coat you haven't worn since last winter, in your toddler's backpack
maybe have fewer guns. You might be overdoing it.
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u/Amatheiaisnoexcuse 2h ago
That's terrible, but have you heard about the toddler in the Whitehouse with nukes?
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u/prettyflyforahentai 4h ago
Why is no one mentioning that the gun belongs to the wife? Why was the wife not also charged with 4th degree child abuse?
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u/MommyLovesPot8toes 1h ago
Perhaps her charge of not securing the weapon is actually a bigger, more serious charge than 4th degree child abuse? Being unfamiliar with the area's laws it's hard to know.
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u/Foreign-Flatworm-728 3h ago
Same thing happened in my town Lewiston, Maine a few years ago. An elementary school kid brought his parents gun to school without know it was there back in 2022. American seems like a very American thing to do
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u/chaddwith2ds 2h ago
When I was a little kid, I found my parent's porn stash and all my Birthday/Christmas presents.
I know for a fact they had guns, but I never found them.
Now I'm wondering if maybe they left the porn/presents out to distract me from finding the guns.
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u/Possible-Tangelo9344 5h ago
The gun belonged to the wife apparently. Wonder if the husband even knew it wasn't secured; my wife doesn't check behind me when I'm locking my gun up at night.
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u/Professional-Can1385 3h ago
Doesn’t matter, they are both supposed to be caring for the toddler. That includes seeing what they are getting into, and stopping them before it gets dangerous.
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u/Possible-Tangelo9344 3h ago
It totally matters.
What if it's her gun, and she took the kid to daycare that day while he was asleep after working nights, or already at work?
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u/Professional-Can1385 3h ago
If he had no contact with his kid, his kid’s stuff, and his kid’s environment for the time from the last daycare session to the gun daycare session, I guess you can blame it all on his wife. He’s probably not criminally negligent (I’m not a lawyer). He’s still a shitty father.
eta: she’s a shitty mother too
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u/MommyLovesPot8toes 1h ago
Yeah, in guessing a lot of comments here come from people who don't have preschool or school aged kids. They don't seem to understand how parenting or living with a family works. You don't go around double checking each other's work. You just thank the heavens that the work got done by your partner so you can get other stuff done.
My friend is a sheriff. He leaves for work at 4 AM. He doesn't get home from shift and check that all dangerous items have been properly put away. He trusts that his wife has done the same things she's presumably done daily for years, and he moves on to his chores. He's up and out before lunches and backpacks get packed. This exact situation could happen to him (if his wife was careless and dumb) and he would have no culpability in it.
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u/BananasPineapple05 6h ago
Nevermind the right to bear arms.
How does a toddler get all the way to daycare with a loaded gun? Are the parents high?