Dearborn Police want your help finding two men caught on camera early this morning trying to break through the back door of the Arab American News building while nearly a dozen employees took cover inside.
As journalists, we often find ourselves in dangerous environments to bring you the story, to keep you informed. The one place we usually feel safest is in our newsroom, we don't expect the danger to come knocking on our back door, but at 2:34 a.m. on deadline day trouble did show up to the Arab American Newsroom and it didn't knock politely says Publisher Osama Siblani.
"I heard like 4 shots, pow! pow! pow! pow!" Thinking it was gunfire, Siblani told his team to take cover.
What sounded like gun shots, turned out to be two men and a hammer.
The suspects were caught on surveillance peeking through newsroom windows at the 11 employees racing to prepare their weekly paper for print before trying to bust through the back door. Fortunately, not even several hits with a hammer could shatter the bulletproof glass, but the brazen attempt is concerning.
"Why would somebody at 2:30 in the morning, with all the lights on, with 11 people working, why would he come in?" says Siblani.
"That's unusual, that's very unusual that they would see 10-12 people inside and continue to do what they're doing.
So that's the million dollar question as to why and that's the point of concern," says Dearborn Police Chief Ronald Haddad.
It's not the first time the Arab American News team has dealt with being in the news in addition to reporting it, they fear it may not be the last.
"We live in fear all the time, I live in fear for my community for my staff for my family, I expect something like this to happen to be honest with you," says Siblani.
Police say it appears the suspects attempted to break into vehicles as well. They are not sure of the motive. If you have any information about these suspects, please contact police.
