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Man Shot 6-Year-Old; Attacked Him With A Sledgehammer For Leaving His Bike On Front Lawn, Family Says
Medical staff advised the family that the shot could have been fatal had the bullet landed an inch in either direction. “He doesn’t realize how close he came to not being here,” Coby Daniel’s father said following the alleged shooting.
A Michigan man is accused of opening fire on a 6-year-old boy who left his bicycle in front of the man’s home.
Ryan Le-Nguyen, 29, faces charges of assault and intent to murder in Ypsilanti Township.
Coby Daniel, 6, suffered a gunshot wound to his arm and was rushed to hospital following the Saturday incident. He’s expected to make a full recovery.
Arnold Daniel, the boy’s father, told Detroit television station WJBK that Le-Nguyen first attacked the young boy with a sledgehammer when he left his bike on the man's front lawn. When the boy went to retrieve the bike, his father say Le-Nguyen opened fire, shooting the child in the arm.
Medical staff advised the family that the shot could have been fatal had the bullet landed an inch in either direction.
"Right now, he’s not even processing what happened,” Arnold Daniel told the outlet. “He doesn’t realize how close he came to not being here..but I realize it.”
The Michigan father alleged the family has had problems with their neighbor in the past. Once, he claimed, he witnessed Le-Nguyen trying to dispose of one of the family’s bicycles
Ring doorbell footage captured children screaming and scattering down the sidewalk of a residential street after a single gunshot is heard.
“He tried hitting me with a sledgehammer but that’s not going to work because I’m too fast,” Coby Daniel told Fox 2. “[Then he] got a gun and BOOM shot me right here.”
Le-Nguyen was released on a $10,000 bond. He was prohibited from immediately being able to return home.
"I’m trying to figure out he got a bond so low for trying to kill my kid," Arnold Daniel said. "I’m scared for my family because I don’t know what he’s capable of.”
On Tuesday, the Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s Office filed an emergency motion to raise Le-Nguyen’s bond to $100,000. Prosecutors argued Le-Nguyen poses a risk to the public and that his low bail has “compounded” the community’s “pain and anger” in the brazen shooting’s aftermath.
“A 6-year-old child was shot in our community,” Washtenaw County District Attorney Eli Savit said in a Wednesday statement disputing the low bond. “The most important thing is that he will survive — and hopefully has a long life ahead of him. But it could have been much different."
Other county officials also cast doubt on Michigan’s bail reform efforts in response to Le-Nguyen’s release ahead of trial.
"I've been consistent since day one that I agree with the premise on reform around bail, that your ability to pay or not to pay a dollar amount shouldn't be the determining factor on whether you stay incarcerated through the adjudication process," Sheriff Jerry Clayton also told WJBK. "We owe it to the system and the community we serve, to evaluate whether we are getting those outcomes. And if we are not we need to be smart enough and courageous enough to say this is not what we intended, let's make our adjustments."
It’s unclear if Le-Nguyen has immediately retained legal counsel.
