Friday News Hit: Couple charged in gun confrontation, 4th of July could feel like 100, Henry Ford's COVID hope
A husband and wife from Independent Township have been charged with felonious assault after a parking lot argument in front of a Chipotle escalated and a gun was pulled and aimed at a woman.
The Oakland County Sheriff announced the felonious assault charges against Jillian and Eric Wuestenberg on Thursday, a day after the argument spun out of control and went viral online.
In videos posted to Twitter and YouTube, the armed woman, now identified by the sheriff as Jillian, is pointing a pistol at the mom and yelling "back the f**k up!" The mom holding the camera can be heard saying to "get the license plate" and asking for the cops to be called.
The heated exchange appears to stem from when the woman bumped into the mom's daughter as they were entering the restaurant. After the mom asked the woman to apologize, the disagreement brewed into a shouting match before a firearm was drawn.
In the videos, explicit language is being used by both parties but it appears to start to wind down as Jillian gets into her car. With her husband, Eric, driving, they're backing out of a parking space. As one of the women walks behind the vehicle, it starts backing up, prompting her to shout "You going to f*ckning hit me?" and slaps the vehicle multiple times.
The vehicle stops and that's when the woman exits, seen readying her firearm.
"Apparently, what had happened - (there) was one common theme between both (stories) - the 3 headed inside Chipotle and one woman headed out with her food, there was a bump as they entered and exit," he said.
Bouchard said someone felt they needed an apology and "it escalated from there". He said it was unclear who the aggressors were.
At least one gun advocate said both the Wuestenbergs and the other family are at fault.
"Both parties were both wrong in this situation," Marcus Weldon.said. "I think the gun owner should not have drawn her firearm in that moment. I think that was not a great bodily harm or threat to her life.
Weldon was arrested, tried and eventually acquitted for shooting two men in self-defense back in 2014. He's a supporter of the Second Amendment and took his argument to Facebook before speaking with FOX 2 Thursday night.
"It's also people's responsibility to not escalate a situation. If someone were to bump my child, I understand as a father I would have been upset and checked the person. I think the ownership also falls on the family to say, walk away. The person in the car was leaving the scene, trying to leave the scene at least. At that point, let them walk away."
He urged people to be the bigger person and get away from the situation, if possible.
Holiday heatwave is here
The Fourth of July weekend is here and it's going to be very hot over the next week. Thursday was our first day over 90 and that's going to continue for at least the next 7 days. We could see as many as 9 straight days over 90 degrees.
But it's going to feel so much hotter.
When we take the humidity into account we begin to talk about the "Heat Index" which is how hot it "feels like" outside. In this case, our range will be between 95-100 degrees through July 4th, until at least July 8th.
The last time we had at least 7 days of over 90 was actually only 2 years ago in 2018. But before that, it was over 65 years ago in 1953! That year we had 11 days in a row of 90+ days.
Three restaurant employees test positive for COVID-19 in Macomb County
Three Red Robin employees in Clinton Township tested positive for COVID-19 in June, forcing the restaurant to close for deep cleaning and disinfecting.
Employees who may have been exposed are required to produce a negative COVID-19 test result before they return to work. In addition, all employees are being screened daily for COVID-19 symptoms as they arrive for work.
The Macomb County Health Department is urging anyone who was at the restaurant between June 18 and June 22 to self-monitor for signs and symptoms and get tested if needed.
Henry Ford finds hope in controversial drug
The Henry Ford Health system released details of a new study of hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malaria drug that's also used to treat Lupus that President Trump says he once took to prevent COVID-19..
The hospital initiated a study on its first 2,500 COVID-19 patients and on Thursday released the results.
"What we found is that of those patients treated with hydroxychloroquine there was a 13% overall mortality; in the patients that were not treated with hydroxychloroquine there was a 26% mortality," said Dr. Steven Kalkanis, CEO of Henry Ford Medical Group.
The patients included in this study, which wrapped up in May, were very sick and had underlying medical issues. But doctors also found that when the drug was administered to these patients, it played a key part in survival rates.
These medical experts do not recommend using this drug outside of a hospital setting, and they admit that more research is needed on its use in treating COVID-19. But they do see this research as a key step in moving forward and decreasing the death rate.