A Michigan sheriff is demanding answers after a suspect on probation for a violent felony shot and nearly killed a woman during a horrific carjacking earlier this week.
On Tuesday, a woman in her 40s and her young son were at a Panera Bread restaurant in Orion Township, Michigan, about 45 minutes northwest of Detroit. As they were walking to their vehicle, a man suddenly ran toward them, shot the woman in the hip, grabbed her car keys, and sped off in her vehicle.
‘We’re lucky she’s alive.’
A license plate reader got a hit on the stolen vehicle shortly thereafter, claimed Sheriff Mike Bouchard of Oakland County. The suspect soon crashed, attempted to escape on foot, but was ultimately apprehended.
The suspect has been identified as 25-year-old Mauriel Hearn of Ann Arbor, the seat of Washtenaw County. Hearn has been charged with carjacking, assault with intent to murder, fleeing a police officer, resisting a police officer, carrying a concealed weapon, and three counts of felony firearm.
Bouchard claimed that the Hearn is a felon who was convicted of assault with intent to commit great bodily harm in late 2024. Bouchard summarized the brutal assault incident: “The victim was a young woman, and she was duct-taped and hog-tied to a bed by this person and briefly suffocated and threatened with sexual assault.”
Bouchard later added that the assailant put a “plastic bag” over the victim’s head.
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Sheriff Mike Bouchard. Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images
Despite the viciousness of the previous attack, the perpetrator was given no prison time, Bouchard said — just two years of probation. Bouchard expressed frustration that the suspect was “on the street” at all.
The sheriff said that police pushed to charge Hearn with assault with intent to commit murder and unlawful imprisonment, but he was instead convicted of assault with intent to do great bodily harm.
“Some of these prosecutors just have to do their damn job,” Bouchard railed.
The Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s Office, which handled the 2024 assault case, told Blaze News in a statement that it did not give or even offer the offender a reduction of charges and suggested there was little prosecutors could do about the light sentence.
“His sentence of probation was consistent with Michigan’s sentencing guidelines — which serve as a guide for courts to determine [what] an appropriate sentence would be in a felony case. In other words, his sentence was likely what he would have received even had he never entered a plea and been found guilty at trial,” the office said in a statement.
“Our thoughts are with the victim of the horrific crime in Orion Township. We are grateful to law enforcement for their quick response and expect that the suspect will be held fully accountable.”
The carjacking victim is expected to recover, though she “lost a lot of blood,” Bouchard said, citing a nurse.
“We’re lucky she’s alive.”
Bouchard noted that law enforcement is looking into working with federal as well as local prosecutors in the carjacking. “Whatever we think we can get the most on this guy, we’re going to do. He needs to be behind bars,” Bouchard said.
Hearn is expected to be arraigned on Friday in 52-3 District Court in Rochester Hills.
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