STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. (WXYZ) — A 16-year-old is facing multiple felony charges after allegedly throwing fireworks into crowds at a Sterling Heights festival, causing panic and injuring a police officer.
Watch Demetrios Sanders' video report:
The first incident occurred around 10:30 p.m. Friday as people were leaving the carnival area of Sterlingfest at Dodge Park. Several fireworks were thrown into a crowd of a few hundred people.
"People weren't sure if it was explosions or explosives or gunfire or fireworks, so people started running. It was pretty chaotic," said Capt. Mario Bastianelli of the Sterling Heights Police Department.
"Ultimately, it also exploded near one of our officers, causing some injury to his arm," Bastianelli said.
Shortly after, another set of fireworks was thrown into a crowd at a nearby BP gas station, creating a potentially dangerous situation.
"Even though we have a lot of safety features, you just want to not chance it," said Richard Via, manager at the BP gas station.
Fortunately, police say no festival attendees required hospitalization.
Police located a suspect in less than 24 hours using footage from the BP station and cameras with AI technology that were brought in specifically for events like Sterlingfest.
"It's gathering information every single second those cameras are in operation," Bastianelli said. "A color shirt, certain type of shorts, pants, whatever it might be. Colored shoes, black hair, tall, certain height, it's evaluating all that, and then when you plug that into the system, it's able to track and gives you people that meet that description."
The 16-year-old accused of throwing the fireworks is facing three felonies, including assaulting a police officer, possession of explosives with intent to terrorize, and placing explosives near property causing injury. The latter charge carries a potential 25-year felony sentence.
"These are explosive fireworks. And you throw it in the mix of it, how are you not going to hurt anybody? Let alone the scare it puts into everybody," Bastianelli said.
While the intent of the accused teen remains unclear, Bastianelli says this should serve as a reminder to young people to make sound decisions.
"Major festivals like this, a lot of people are there to have a good time, there's a lot of families. They don't need to be affected negatively because some kids don't want to be smart," Bastianelli said.
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