In Ypsilanti Township, Mich., a 6-year-old Black child was shot in the arm by his neighbor who reportedly was upset that the child’s bicycle was in his front yard. The neighbor, an Asian man, first allegedly threatened the boy with a sledgehammer after he went to retrieve his bike, then the man went inside his home and fired a shot through his front window striking the child. Now, the boy’s father understandably wants to know why a man who could have killed his child and is charged with assault with intent to murder is free on bond after spending only three days in jail.
“I’m trying to figure out he got a bond so low for trying to kill my kid,” Arnold Daniel told Fox 2 Detroit in regards to his son, Coby, being shot by 29-year-old Ryan Le-Nguyen, who was arrested by the Washtenaw County Sheriff and released Tuesday on a $10,000 bond.
Daniel said the incident began when his kids were outside riding their bikes and they eventually stopped riding and left one of the bikes in front of Le-Nguyen’s house.
From Fox 2:
When Coby went back to get his bike, Daniel said the neighbor came out with a sledgehammer in his hand and said something to the boy. Daniel said he didn’t know exactly what was said but knows his son said something back.
After that, the neighbor went back inside and Daniel said he shot a gun through the front window, hitting Coby in the arm.
“He tried hitting me with a sledgehammer but that’s not going to work because I’m too fast. (Then he) got a gun and BOOM shot me right here,” Coby said.
The bullet went through the boy’s arm and he was rushed to the hospital. Daniel said the doctor told him that had the bullet been an inch in either direction it likely would have killed Coby.
Fortunately, Coby is expected to recover from his wound, but that doesn’t make it less concerning and ridiculous that a child has a bullet wound in his arm in the first place because his neighbor apparently cared as little about the life of a Black child as he did about his own front window being intact.
“Right now, he’s not even processing what happened,” Daniel told Fox 2 of his son. “He doesn’t realize how close he came to not being here—but I realize it.”
Daniel also said that because Le-Nguyen is free, “I’m scared for my family because I don’t know what he’s capable of.”
Prosecutors told Fox 2 that they were shocked and appalled at how low the bond set for Le-Nguyen was and that they had asked for a $100,000 bond. They also said they have filed an emergency motion to raise the bond. Meanwhile, a judge has ordered Le-Nguyen not to return home, but one still has to wonder how the hell a man charged with intent to murder in an incident where a six-year-old was shot walked out of jail at all.