No. 7
NEWS YOU CAN USE, NEWS YOU CAN TRUST
75¢
February 16 – 22, 2017
w w w . a s s o c i a t e d n e w s p a p e r s . n e t
Following discussion dur-
ing a budget study session
earlier this month, members
of the Wayne City Council
approved amendments to
the 2016-2017 budget.
See page 4.
A Night For Northville, a
fundraising event for the
Northville Educational
Foundation, will take place
March 11 at Schoolcraft
CollegeVisTaTechCenter.
See page 7.
Vol. 132, No. 7
Vol. 70, No. 7
Vol. 70, No. 7
Vol. 17, No. 7
Patty Braden, director of
the Romulus Public Library,
gave an update to the
Romulus City Council mem-
bers last week about the suc-
cess of the library last year.
See page 2.
Vol. 132, No. 7
Vol. 70, No. 7
Vol. 70, No. 7
For home delivery of The Eagle call 734-467-1900.
Westland Police Ofc.
Jason Soulliere joined an
elite group last week when
he was named as Police
Officer of the Year and hon-
ored for his dedicatedwork.
See page 4.
Some campers in Canton
Township will have a few
extra supplies this year,
thanks to a $1,200 donation
from the Corvette Legends
Club.
See page 5.
Vol. 17, No. 7
State Rep. Jewell Jones
(D-Inkster) expressed his
support for his home town
following the State of the
City address by Mayor Byron
Nolen last week.
See page 7.
The Plymouth District
Library was recently award-
ed a Certificate of
Appreciation
for
Outstanding
Chapter
Support by theAssociation of
the United States Army
(AUSA).
See page 3
.
The Belleville Rotary
Club will host their ninth
annual Italian Dinner Buffet
from 4:30-7:30 p.m. on Fat
Tuesday, Feb. 28, at the Van
Buren Eagles, 9961 Beck
Road.
See page 2.
A sobering report presented
by Plymouth Township Fire
Chief Dan Phillips last week
revealed emergency response
times at a level now considered
to be life-threatening in the
township.
The current conditions,
Phillips explained to the mem-
bers of the Board of Trustees,
have ravaged critical assets and
are the result of years of staffing
cuts and a failure to repair or
replace dilapidated and neglect-
ed equipment
The last public report of such
grave conditions was presented
by former Fire Chief Mark
Wendell in a 2013 letter to then
Township Supervisor Richard
Reaume. In Phillips' dire report,
presented during a board study
session, he outlined a 50-per-
cent decline in response times
for the year 2016. Phillips main-
tains that up to the closing of the
Lake Pointe Fire Station and
severe fire personnel cutbacks,
the department was able to
average 4:13 minutes for emer-
gency runs. The current 6:50
minute average response times,
he said, are totally unaccept-
able, describing it as a life and
death situation.
In January 2017, there were
240 fire-rescue incidents accord-
ing to Phillips. Response times
for the township are measured
from the time of the 9-1-1 call
until the first fire department
medical/fire unit arrives on the
scene of the emergency.
Medical experts and national
standards agree there are virtu-
ally no chances of survival for a
patient in cardiac arrest after 6
minutes - a time after which all
body organs have stopped.
Experts say 6 minutes is the
determinate time limit in 99
percent of cases of patient sur-
vival.
In one documented case
reported by The Eagle last year,
help came too late for a unre-
sponsive male in Lake Pointe
when the rescue squad arrived
10 minutes after a 9-1-1 call.
This incident was not an isolat-
ed case, according to official
reports.
Phillips, who made the
Fire chief offers ‘sobering’ report
3 arrested, charged in 2 homicides
Plymouth Township Fire Department personnel raise the longest ladder the township currently owns (circled) at The Inn at St. Johns’ dur-
ing a demonstration of an aerial ladder truck. Current fire department equipment conditions and response times were reported as “life-
threatening” by Chief Dan Phillips.
Photo by Don Howard
Don Howard
Staff Writer
See
Report,
page 3
Three teens have been
arrested and charged in the
killing of two men in Westland
last week.
Westland police, with the
assistance of the U.S. Marshal's
Service, arrested the two men
and onewomanwithin hours of
the shootings reported at about
3 a.m. Feb. 6. Officers were dis-
patched to the area of Norene
and Treadwell in the early
morning hours Feb. 6 following
a report of several shots heard
in the area which is east of
Newburgh and south of Palmer
roads.
When officers arrived on the
scene, they discovered 35-year-
old Westland resident Howard
Wick in the front yard of a
home, the victim of an appar-
ent gunshot. The victim was
transported to a local hospital
but was pronounced dead on
arrival, according to Sgt. Robert
Wilkie of the Westland Police
Department.
While searching the area,
officers discovered the body of
a deceased 19-year-old man,
identified as Jordan Baker of
Wayne, who had also apparent-
ly been shot, on the ground
about three houses from the
location of Wick's body. The
deceased was remanded to the
custody of the Wayne County
Medical Examiner's office.
Investigators said the inci-
dent was narcotics-related and
that the two deceased individu-
als were associated. Arrested
Feb. 7 and charged were:
Dominik Charleston, 19, of
Romulus who has been
charged with two counts of first
degree murder, two counts of
felony murder, two counts of
armed robbery and one count
of felony firearm; Kobi Taylor,
19, reported as homeless, who
is facing two counts of felony
murder, two counts of armed
robbery and one count of
felony firearm and Amber
Tackett, 17, of Taylor. She is
charged with two counts of
felony murder and two counts
of armed robbery.
All three were arraigned in
18th District Court before
Judge Mark McConnell and
remanded to jail without bond.
Each was scheduled to appear
in court this morning for a
probable cause examination
before Judge SandraCicirelli.
Officers asked anyone with
information regarding the inci-
dent to contact police at (734)
722-9600.
Dominik Charleston
Kobi Taylor
Amber Tackett
Testimony will resume in a
Detroit courtroom tomorrow
where Roksana Sikorski is seek-
ing a new trial in the attempted
murder of her family in 2014.
Sikorski was 15 when she
attempted to slit the throat of
her younger brother in what
prosecutors and investigators
described as a plot to kill her
entire family so that she could
be with her then 22-year-old
boyfriend, Michael Rivera.
Sikorski, now 17, entered a
guilty plea just before her trial
last year on charges of assault
with intent to murder and was
sentenced to 10-20 years in
prison. She was originally
accused of plotting to kill her
adoptive parents, Jeffrey and
Laurene Sikorski, along with
her younger brother and sister
in their Plymouth Township
home inOctober 2014.
She attacked her brother
with a knife in his bedroom
while Rivera offered instruc-
tions and directions for the
attack on her cell phone.
Investigators found the explicit
and graphic directions for the
knife attacks on the couple's
respective phones. Sikorski's
attack on her brother was
thwarted and her family was
alerted by his screams and those
of a younger sister. Sikorski fled
the home and she and Rivera
were arrested at his Detroit
apartment the nextmorning.
Her defense attorney,
Matthew Evans, claimed in her
original defense that she was
under the influence of her adult
boyfriend, Rivera, who is now
serving a life sentence for his
part in the attack.
Sikorski's appellate attorney,
Jacqueline Ouvry, questioned
Evans last week before Third
Circuit
Judge
Thomas
See
Trial,
page 3
Roksana Sikorski
Teen seeking new trial in knife attack
