BENTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. — A Dunham's manager was held at gunpoint while the store was robbed on Nov. 16.
The following narrative is from a federal probable cause affidavit obtained by FOX 17.
According to authorities, the manager of the Dunham's, whose name was not given in court documents, was taken from his home by two suspects and held at gunpoint while the store was robbed.
The suspects allegedly forced the store manager to give up the Dunham's alarm code before they took two Yeti coolers and filled them with weapons. In total, authorities recovered 123 stolen guns.
Those two suspects were later identified by authorities as Dontrell Nance and Darnell Bishop.
Both suspects were photographed by investigators. Authorities say the photos show the coolers in the back of a Dodge Durango in the days following the robbery.
According to court filings, one of the suspects tried to use CashApp to send money from the manager's debit card to a CashApp account. Investigators were able to trace back the transaction, which was unsuccessful, to Dontrell Nance.
Investigators ultimately got a search warrant for the Durango, in which they found two coolers full of guns.
Nance allegedly told authorities he served as a lookout while Bishop went and robbed the Dunham's. Nance claimed he did not have a gun, but rather held a cell phone inside of a sock at the manager's head.
There is a third participant in the robbery who has not yet been identified by authorities. Bishop allegedly told authorities he surveyed the Dunham's and followed the manager of the store to prepare for the robbery, according to court records.
Both Nance and Bishop are charged with the following in federal court:
- Hobbs Act robbery
- Brandishing a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence
- Theft of firearms from a federal firearms licensee
- Knowingly possessing stolen firearms
FOX 17 Spoke with ATF Agent Jim Deir, who provided some insight into the siege. It was a team effort between local and federal authorities.
“This was a reckoning,” Deir said of the recovery of the weapons.
Deir says in his experience, these types of guns make their way to the streets not long after they are stolen. They're usually sold on the black market, according to Deir.
“Its kind of tempting, when you look at each gun you could get anywhere from 500 to a thousand dollars per gun. You’ve got 123 guns. You’re looking at anywhere from sixty to a hundred twenty-three thousand dollars worth of guns, right? It’s pretty tempting, but with temptation comes a price you have to pay,” Deir said.
Deir says if it weren't for the quick work of investigators, the weapons would have been long gone.
“These guns were 24 hours away from being gone. We’d never see them again,” Deir said.
It was a total of roughly 12 hours from the time the guns were stolen until when they were recovered, according to investigators.
“In investigations like this, what typically happens is all these guns would find their way into an apartment, or a hotel room. Group texts would be going out to every gang member in the community that these guys knew,” Deir said. “Then there’d be a merry go round of people going in and buying guns. They would come in and trade drugs, trade money, for each gun."
