Two men brawl in front of young child in Meijer parking lot after alleged road rage
VAN BUREN TWP, Mich. (FOX 2) - Police in Van Buren Township say video that got shared on social media thousands of times was not because of an attempted abduction - but because one man thought the other man was driving too close and attacked him in the parking lot.
Shantel Misaki recorded video of the fight in the parking lot of the Meijer in Van Buren Township. One of the men is wearing a hat and is the father of the little girl, seen standing between the men. We've blurred out the faces of the men and the child involved but the video starts with her father telling the other man to get away from his daughter.
Misaki is heard on the video screaming at the men to stop and pleading that there is a little girl nearby.
"We were trying to figure out what was going on, we really were just trying to de-escalate everything," she told FOX 2's Jessica Dupnack.
Her video received hundreds of thousands of views after she posted and said it looked like a child abduction. Police stress that is not the case - at all.
"That gut feeling that I had is now gone because I didn’t know what was going on," she said.
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The fight started when the two men were on the road. Police said the suspect was mad because the victim was driving too close. When they pulled into the Meijer parking lot, the suspect went after him and punched him in the back of the head, as he was holding his little girl.
Misaki said she didn't know what was happening but knew she had to do something to keep the child safe.
"Let me just get over here and protect the baby, make sure nothing happens to her and let these guys duke it out," she said. "She looked so terrified, she looked scared, she looked confused as well - like what was going on
The suspect eventually drove away but Van Buren Township Police pulled him over and arrested him - and found a few hundred dollars in stolen merchandise from another Meijer store.
Van Buren Township Police said road rage is way up and have had 7 or 8 incidents over the past month. Misaki just wants everyone to relax and think about what they're doing.
"Just calm down. You’re going to get to you’re destination everyone wants to make it home at the end of the night," she said.
The suspect will be charged with assault and theft, police said.