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Man who shares accused killer's name says he understands why he was arrested

Posted at 10:22 PM, Dec 22, 2017
and last updated 2017-12-22 23:19:46-05

Twenty-two-year-old Justin Paul was arraigned Friday for brutally stabbing his own mother to death on Wednesday.

But turns out Westland police first arrested the wrong person. His name was also Justin Paul. He’s about the same age and lives close to the accused killer.

“I had no idea what was going on. I just wanted to comply. I knew something was very wrong,” Paul says.

Paul had gotten a call that Westland police wanted to speak to him, but says he had no idea why.

“Seven cop cars come, are you Justin, put your hands up. Put your hands up,” he says.

Justin was mistaken for another man, his name is also Justin Paul, around the same age and also lives near this Justin Paul - an innocent man.

The wrong Justin was arrested, but then quickly released.

Westland police have issued this heartfelt explanation.

“We do apologize it wasn’t completely correct what we did for sure,” says Sgt. Rob Wilkie.

Wilkie says mistakes were made and says the department has no problem admitting fault here. They simply followed a lead, but it led them to the wrong Justin Paul.

Sgt. Wilkie says the wrong guy did the right thing when faced with a large police presence.

“This is a great moral lesson of not resisting until figuring out what’s going on,” he says.

So how does Justin Paul feel about police now.

“I still trust them,” he says. “I just want to make sure - I don’t want anyone to go through what I did.”

The accused killer, 22-year-old Justin Paul, was arrested and did in fact resist police and was shot before he was taken into custody.

He was also arraigned on murder charges Friday.

Meanwhile, 20-year-old Justin Paul says he understands the mix up and would like police to use extra caution, to prevent this from happening again.