Ex-football player charged in standoff • Baltimore bridge collapse updates • Girl's killer to be sentenced

WEDNESDAY NEWS HIT - A former professional football player whose health was previously the topic of a FOX 2 story is facing charges after an armed standoff in Royal Oak.

Jonathan McCall is facing one count of domestic spousal assault and one count of assault and battery for the barricaded situation Monday night. Authorities said police were called to the home on Whitcomb after an assault. When they arrived, McCall allegedly barricaded himself, his wife, and his children in the home.

In 2017, McCall was featured on FOX 2 in a story about his struggles with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) — a degenerative brain disease that has been linked to repeated blows to the head.

McCall played football for Central Michigan and then played in the Arena Football League for seven years, including a stint with the Detroit Fury.

"I think I’ve had maybe about 100 concussions," McCall told Dave Spencer in 2017. "I was doing unsafe behaviors, like taking knives, cutting on my hand."

Dr. Peter Lewitt, a neurologist with DMC, said McCall's CTE is most likely "a consequence of regular head battering that is part of the training and game-play experience of American football."

During Monday night’s standoff, police tried to talk to McCall — but they said he was having a mental health crisis and refused to come out of the home.

Bobby Ferguson banned from doing work with Detroit until 2033

Detroit's Office of Inspector General debarred Bobby Ferguson from doing work with Detroit after it learned he had approached a high ranking official about contracting with one of the departments. 

Ferguson received a 21-year prison term before receiving a compassionate release in April 2021. According to media reports, the city canceled $1 million in contracts that had been awarded to a firm owned by his daughter. 

According to BridgeDetroit, the city scrapped the deals amid concerns that Ferguson would be profiting from the work. He's since asked a judge to end his supervised release, citing hardships he's experienced in getting work under the current terms. 

Among them, Ferguson still owes more than $2.6 million in restitution to the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department. 

He's now barred from doing work with the city until 2023, a 20-year ban that backdates to 2013.

6 presumed dead in Baltimore bridge collapse

Six missing construction workers have been presumed dead by their employer after the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse.

Brawner Builders Executive Vice President Jeffrey Pritzker says the crew was working in the middle of the bridge’s span when a cargo ship hit it early Tuesday. He says the bodies of the workers have not yet been recovered but they are presumed to have died given the water’s depth and the amount of time that has passed since the collapse.

"This was so completely unforeseen," Pritzker said. "We don’t know what else to say. We take such great pride in safety, and we have cones and signs and lights and barriers and flaggers. But we never foresaw that the bridge would collapse."

Man to be sentenced in fatal shooting of 11-year-old

A man is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday in the 2022 fatal shooting of 11-year-old Saniyah Pugh.

Pugh was playing inside her grandmother's Detroit home when she was struck by a bullet fired by William Dickerson from outside the house. He pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and felony firearm.

Under a sentencing agreement, Dickerson could receive five to 15 years in prison; he will then serve an additional two years for the felony firearm charge.

"The system appears to work for anything outside of murder," Pugh's grandmother Lawanda Melton said. "We were told 37 to 50 (years) ago and that it wasn’t going to be changed." 

The family does not think the convicted killer will receive enough of a punishment.

"In a few years, we’ll see this man walking the streets," Melton said.

Strip mall destroyed by fire

Wind made battling a strip mall fire in Warren difficult Tuesday night.

The fire began around 7 p.m. at Frazho Plaza on the 26000 block of Groesbeck Highway, near Frazho Road.

Warren Fire Commissioner Skip McAdams said the fire started in one unit and spread to the common attic. The fire then traveled down the building, which contained 12 units.

"This structure faces west. And once (the fire) hit the roof, it took off," McAdams said. "The preliminary investigation is showing that there was no fire stops in the attic, which allowed the fire to travel very quickly – and the wind helped it, of course."

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What else we're watching

1. A St. Clair Shores Catholic school, St. Germaine, announced it will close despite $500,000 raised by the community.
2. A woman who assaulted a child at Somerset Mall received an 18-month probation sentence after pleading guilty.
3. With less than a month until the NFL Draft in Detroit, the city has released details about the event, including road closures that begin this week.
4. A family member of 1 13-year-old sexual assault victim said the girl's 7-year-old sister helped her escape the attack.
5. Next month, the Detroit Zoo will hand out free tickets in exchange for old electronics to recycle. Learn more.

Ship’s mayday allowed "heroes" to stop traffic before Baltimore bridge collapse

As a cargo ship plowed through the darkness towards Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge early Tuesday morning, its crew was powerless to change direction. But they were able to get out an emergency call that saved lives, Maryland’s governor said.

It was around 1:30 a.m. when the cargo ship Dali hit one of the supports of the Key Bridge, sending the entire span plunging into the frigid waters of the Patapsco River. According to investigators, the crew was able to radio a mayday message, warning that they had lost power and were unable to steer the 985-foot-long vessel.

Moments later, a police dispatcher put out a call asking officers to stop all traffic on Interstate 695, according to Maryland Transportation Authority first responder radio traffic obtained from the Broadcastify.com archive by the Associated Press.