DETROIT (WXYZ) — A Detroit man has been arrested in connection to the fatal beating of a Berkley man after a traffic crash last week, police tell 7 Action News.
- Loved ones remember Berkley man beaten to death as police search for killer
- Detroit police seek suspect involved in fatal assault of man after car accident
Watch the arraignment here live at 1 p.m.
Lawrence James Davis was charged with Open Murder and has been on the run since the early morning hours of July 22 when he allegedly beat Tyler Wingate to death.
Davis was arrested in northwest Detroit on Tuesday afternoon at the Bonnieview Apartments.
Davis had been hiding out in one of the apartments where at least one woman lives with children.
When DPD's Special Response Team (SRT) entered the apartment, a man named Larry, who only wanted to use his first name, was also inside. Larry told 7 Action News that he stopped to visit a woman who lives there just about five minutes before SRT entered.
Larry said he didn't realize that the stranger he nodded to inside the apartment when he walked in was a murder suspect.
"I was just in the apartment at the wrong time," Larry said. "To be honest, I didn't recognize him."
Larry said he and the man he now knows was Lawrence Davis got on the ground when SRT busted through the door. "I didn't want to get shot."
Wingate, 24, and his passenger were driving northbound on Livernois Avenue when another vehicle crashed into them. Wingate and his passenger exited the vehicle and walked into the gas station parking lot.
Prosecutors say that Davis, who had been in the other vehicle, allegedly struck Wingate in the head, and after Wingate fell, continued to strike him and kick him. Police said Davis then ran away from the scene.
Officers arrived and found Wingate lying on the ground unresponsive in the parking lot of the gas station. He was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Davis is expected to be arraigned on Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. WXYZ will live stream the arraignment.
