Detroit detective's grandson killed in drive-by, students charged in school threats, Winter Blast plans move

Brandon Cobbs was killed by a drive-by shooter while he walked to his grandmother's home on Detroit's west side last week.

Cobbs was innocent, police said. But the 22-year-old was murdered, and his killer is still on the loose.

"Just an innocent victim. We don't have a lot of answers as to why. It could be a case of mistaken identity, we don't know at this point," said Detroit Police Cmdr. Michael McGinnis.

Cobbs is the grandson of a detective who has been with the Detroit Police Department for 44 years, and his mother is a 911 operator for the city.

"The grandfather of this victim, he's a 44-year veteran of the Detroit Police Department, and he's been investigating cases like this for 44 years, working hard to bring justice to families and now this hits home for him," McGinnis said.

Cobbs was killed in the area of Mark Twain and Seven Mile around 5 p.m. Dec. 1. when someone in the backseat of a white Chrysler 300 with tinted windows and black rims shot him.

Anyone with information is asked to call police at 313-596-2260.

17 students charged with making school threats

After the Oxford High School shooting last week, there has been a rash of threats made against schools across the state.

In recent days, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy has charged 17 students with making threats and one student with bringing a weapon to school. 

The students charged are between the ages of 12 and 17 and attend school in Detroit, Southgate, Melvindale, Grosse Pointe Farms, Van Buren Township, and Grosse Pointe Woods, and Harper Woods.

The Wayne County threats aren't the only ones authorities have addressed recently. 

Authorities throughout Metro Detroit have been working to address the rise in threats, investigate them, and charge the people behind them. In the wake of the Oxford shooting that left four students dead, schools have canceled classes and gone into lock-downs over threat concerns.

"We have charged 18 youth in the last few days with crimes relating to school threats. Much has been written about these types of cases lately yet still these serious events continue to happen," Worthy said. "Quelling school threats is going to take the work of all of us. It is also going to take facing head-on the access our children have for guns and their fascination with them."

Winter Blast plans move to Royal Oak

Detroit's annual Winter Blast fest is anticipated to move for 2022.

It was announced last week that the Detroit festival would not be held next year due to financial woes caused by the pandemic. However, a press release said there were talks with another major municipality to hold the event there.

Royal Oak is planning to host the festival, which was canceled this year due to COVID-19.

Visitors can expect the same types of attractions seen at the Downtown Detroit event. There's even plans to transform the Royal Oak Farmers Market parking lot into an ice skating rink. City commissioners are expected to vote on the rink next week.

"It included the 'Polar Plunge' although they haven’t heard from us yet, because this isn’t official," organizer Jon Witz said. "But there would be food trucks, there would be spectacular ice sculptures, marshmallow roasting, heated tents with lots of live music and entertainment. So I would say, it’s going to be pretty grand."

What else we're watching

  1. A Detroit woman was killed in a rollover crash on I-96. She was not wearing a seatbelt.
  2. Victims of the Oxford High School shooting are continuing to recover.
  3. School buses from 13 districts drove to Oxford to honor the high school shooting victims.
  4. Michigan has again broken its record for COVID-19 hospitalizations.
  5. A "suspicious fire" broke out at a neighbor's home the day after an elderly Detroit man was killed in a firebombing.

Live on FOX 2

Daily forecast

We will get above freezing Thursday, but the real warmup comes this weekend.

How does an officer mistake a gun for a Taser?

As the Kim Potter trial continues, one question continues to rise – how does an officer mistake a gun for a Taser?

Experts agree that such incidents are rare and probably happen fewer than once per year throughout the U.S. A 2012 article published in the monthly law journal Americans for Effective Law Enforcement documented nine cases dating back to 2001 in which officers shot suspects with handguns when they said they meant to fire stun guns.