Detroit News this Past Week

Detroit Police Chief Todd Bettison faces an inspector general investigation over calls he made asking two men to take down social media photos of Mayor Mary Sheffield with her ex-boyfriend, as the department refers its investigations into both men to an outside agency the Free Press reports is the FBI. A Detroit gas station owner is convicted after investigators found 42 kilograms of fentanyl in a Detroit stash house, and a woman is accused of misusing $122,000 in her uncle's Social Security benefits while he lived in a Detroit home without water or heat. Henry Ford Hospital marks 50 years of training emergency physicians. Comments are open below.

The Weather: Heat Peaks Near 75 Degrees Saturday

Saturday is the week's warmest day at 75°, with Friday close behind at 72°. Wednesday is the coolest, topping out at 60°. Sunday brings the heaviest rain, 0.551 inches on a 42% chance, while Wednesday's lighter 0.146 inches carries the week's highest chance of rain at 46%. Monday, Friday and Saturday are dry.

The News

Detroit police chief faces inspector general probe over calls to activist, mayor's ex-boyfriend's case

Detroit Police Chief Todd Bettison is now the subject of an investigation by the city's Office of Inspector General over phone calls he made asking two men — activist Jahdante Smith and businessman Marvin Walker — to remove social media posts showing Mayor Mary Sheffield with Walker, her former boyfriend from her time on City Council. Bettison has acknowledged making the calls, including one to Smith on Aug. 5, and said he asked that the photos be removed because he found them “inappropriate” and believed they were “intended to shame and humiliate a woman.” Smith says his phone was seized by Detroit police Aug. 19 under a search warrant he calls a “witch hunt” unrelated to the photos, and has called on the police union to hold a vote of no confidence in Bettison. Former Detroit Police Chief James Craig said the OIG will need to determine whether Bettison “used department resources improperly.” Separately, Detroit police confirmed they have referred their investigations into both Walker and Smith to an outside agency; the Detroit Free Press reported a source saying the FBI has taken the “public corruption side” of the Walker case. Separately, Charlie LeDuff of the Michigan Enjoyer reported Aug. 26 that Walker alleged Sheffield used him to collect illegal kickbacks during her council tenure. Sheffield has denied wrongdoing and said no city funds or contracts ever went to Walker; Walker has denied the allegations LeDuff reported.

Source: FOX 2 Detroit; Detroit Free Press, September 13–16, 2026

Detroit gas station owner convicted after 42 kilograms of fentanyl found in stash house

Barry Willis, 58, of Clinton Township, was convicted Sept. 14 of possessing more than 400 grams of fentanyl with intent to distribute, conspiracy to distribute more than 400 grams of fentanyl, being a felon in possession of a firearm and unlawful possession of a pill press. The Livonia Police Department's Intelligence Bureau executed search warrants March 28, 2024, at Willis's Clinton Township home, his Detroit gas station and a Detroit house connected to him; in the house's basement, officers found more than 42 kilograms of fentanyl in pill and powder form, a commercial pill press, narcotics scales and recipes for making fentanyl pills, along with two handguns. Investigators found a third handgun at Willis's home and a fourth at his gas station, and recovered more than $134,000 in cash from his home. Willis faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison; sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 11, 2027, before U.S. District Judge Laurie J. Michelson.

Source: ClickOnDetroit / WDIV Local 4, September 18, 2026

Niece accused of misusing $122,000 in benefits while uncle lived in ‘deplorable’ Detroit home

Laura Whisenant is accused of spending $121,980 in Social Security benefits meant for her uncle, who has dementia, on personal expenses — including nail salons, massages, fast food, liquor and wine stores and a Las Vegas nightclub — while he lived in a Detroit home without running water or electricity from 2017 until Adult Protective Services removed him in 2023, according to a federal complaint filed Sept. 8 by a Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General special agent. The complaint says a wood-burning fireplace was the home's only heat source; an APS petition said he was at risk with no heat at all. APS described the home as having “deplorable living conditions that were not suitable for human habitation”; investigators said the uncle's clothes were found “torn, coated in grime and falling apart” and his mattress “covered in dirt.” A cousin told investigators Whisenant sometimes went a month or more without visiting and brought only enough canned food and water for a fraction of three daily meals. Whisenant told investigators in a May 2024 interview that she used all the money for her uncle but could not document the expenses, and that she commingled funds because she bought groceries for several households. The alleged misuse ran from December 2013 through June 2023; the Social Security Administration suspended payments after she failed to account for the spending.

Source: ClickOnDetroit / WDIV Local 4, September 17, 2026

Henry Ford Hospital marks 50 years of training emergency physicians

Henry Ford Hospital is celebrating 50 years of its emergency medicine residency program, one of the oldest in the country; when it began in 1976 it was the 11th such program in the United States, and nearly 300 now exist nationwide. Dr. John Deledda, chair of emergency medicine at Henry Ford Health, said the specialty's development at the hospital “was built on the same ethos that Henry Ford Hospital came to be within this community … as a safety net and as a beacon of healing.” Henry Ford later served as the national coordinating and data center for a landmark study of the clot-busting drug tPA, which found that fast treatment could dramatically improve stroke outcomes, and its research also helped standardize early, aggressive treatment for sepsis; Dr. Chris Lewandowski, vice chair emeritus of the department and a 1988 graduate of the program, said the sepsis research “changed the face of sepsis care around the country.” Henry Ford Health's planned Destination Grand hospital is expected to include a new 75,000-square-foot emergency department.

Source: ClickOnDetroit / WDIV Local 4, September 16, 2026

Metro Detroit

Michigan Supreme Court sends Ethan Crumbley's life sentence back for appeals court review

The Michigan Supreme Court on Sept. 17 remanded Oxford High School shooter Ethan Crumbley's case to the Michigan Court of Appeals, ordering it to review whether Crumbley had an ineffective lawyer, whether a judge abused his discretion in finding prosecutors provided enough evidence to justify mandatory life without parole, and whether comments Crumbley made at sentencing waived his right to appeal. Crumbley, now 20, was 15 on Nov. 30, 2021, when he killed four students and wounded seven others, including a teacher, at Oxford High School with a gun his parents bought him for Christmas; he is housed at the Oaks Correctional Facility in Manistee. The Michigan Court of Appeals denied his requests to withdraw his guilty plea or be resentenced last year. The review follows the U.S. Supreme Court's 2012 ruling in Miller v. Alabama, which held that the Eighth Amendment bars mandatory life-without-parole sentences for those under 18 convicted of murder without a case-by-case review of youth and circumstances.

Source: Deadline Detroit (Tresa Baldas, Detroit Free Press), September 19, 2026

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