Toledo police arrest suspect in North Toledo homicide

Demeko Deshun McDaniel

MONROE COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE

A Toledo Police SWAT team enters the home at 1018 Bricker Ave., where they found Junior Francous, 39, dead. An autopsy is today.

MONROE -- A Toledo man was arrested at Mercy Memorial Hospital in Monroe early today in connection with the shooting death of a man in a North Toledo house on Wednesday and the theft of a getaway car a block away.

Demeko Deshun McDaniel, 21, of 209 Courtland Ave., was arrested after Toledo police issued warrants charging him with murder and aggravated robbery. He was held at the Monroe County jail pending extradition. That process is likely to take several days, said Sgt. Joe Heffernan, Toledo police spokesman.

Mr. McDaniel went to the hospital with injuries presumably sustained in the incident for which he was charged, Sergeant Heffernan said. Toledo police credited the Monroe County sheriff’s office, the Michigan State Police, and Monroe police with assisting in the arrest.

Police would not give additional details of the case, only adding that the shooting does not appear to be gang related.

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Junior Francous, 39, was found dead inside 1018 Bricker Ave. just before 3 p.m. Wednesday when Toledo’s SWAT unit entered the home, two hours after the initial call at 1:08 p.m. of shots fired at the home.

Demeko Deshun McDaniel

Francous was shot multiple times with a handgun, according to warrants filed in Toledo Municipal Court. One warrant said that Tyeisha Bell, 20, was kidnapped “prior to and leading up to [the suspect’s] altercation with Francous.”

When police arrived on scene, they learned a woman, whose name has not been released, had fled the house.

She told officials that she and her boyfriend had been inside when it was burglarized and that shots were fired during the invasion, police have said.

Robbery was believed to be the motive in the incident, Sergeant Heffernan said.

The suspect fled the house on Bricker before police arrived. Another warrant alleges that Mr. McDaniel brandished a weapon at a woman in the 1100 block of Homer and stole her Pontiac Grand Prix.

Neighbors expressed anger at both the brazenness of the invasion — at 1 p.m. in a residential neighborhood filled with people — and at what they considered an excessive delay between when officers arrived on scene and when the house was entered.

“It doesn’t take more than 20 minutes to breach that house,” Chase Britton said. “What are they waiting for?”

Arriving officers did not know the identity of anyone in the house, Sergeant Heffernan said, and did not know if anyone was armed, so they followed department policy and waited for the SWAT team to arrive.

During the investigation Wednesday afternoon, Toledo police Detective Larry Anderson was bit on the leg by a “pit bull” when the Lucas County Dog Warden tried to remove the dog.

When the detective tried to push the dog off, he was reportedly bit a second time.

Detective Anderson was treated on scene and later went to the hospital for additional treatment, police said.

The detective is off of work today, but is expected to be back on Monday.

Members of the Toledo Police Department SWAT prepare to move into the home on Bricker Avenue as neighborhood residents watch the action.

Seven minutes after police were called to the Bricker home, a woman who was reportedly picking up a friend for school in the 1100 block of Homer Avenue, only 0.2 miles from the Bricker address, was carjacked by a man who put a gun to her head and told her to get out of her car, according to a Toledo police report.

Police believe the man who carjacked the woman is the same person wanted in the shooting.

After the woman got out of the car, the suspect drove eastbound and turned left onto Buckeye Street.

The car is a white 1996 Pontiac Grand Am with an Ohio license plate of EZK5290.

The suspect on Wednesday was described as a black man, 5 feet 7 inches tall, with a black shirt, in his mid 20s. The man, according to the police report, had blood on his face and was carrying a large black handgun.

Police are asking anyone with information about the man or the car to call 419-255-1111.