Motorcycle club members charged after shots fired at Madison Heights officer

OFF THE WIRE
Suspects had woman set up man for robbery at motel, police say

MADISON HEIGHTS – Three members of the Vigilante Motorcycle Club were arraigned Thursday after police say one of them fired shots at a police officer following a foiled robbery attempt of a man at a motel.

Christopher S. Nickerson, 33, of St. Clair Shores is accused of holding a .38-caliber revolver in one hand and a .380 semiautomatic handgun in the other and firing at least six shots at an officer outside the Econo Lodge motel, 32703 Stephenson, early Wednesday.

He is charged with assault with intent to murder and several felony firearm charges. He was jailed on $2.5 million bond following his arraignment in Madison Heights 43rd District Court.

The officer escaped injury.

Police said Nickerson – along with Mark McArthur, 40, of Harrison in Clare County, and Noah Smith, 39, of Warren – went to a man’s room at the motel about 3 a.m. dressed in face masks and carrying handguns to steal drugs.

The man, 46, of Troy was in a room with a 26-year-old Utica woman who set him up for the attempted robbery, police said.

“A prior transaction by the man led the woman to believe he had a large amount of cocaine,” said Madison Heights Police Lt. Robert Anderson. “As it turned out there was no cocaine in the room.”

The three suspects pounded on the room’s door and called the woman by name to open the door, police said.

The man kept the woman from the door and called police, Anderson said

“The suspects heard him on the phone and left the area,” he said.

Police arrived and said they saw the suspects leaving in a white Chrysler 300. A police sergeant blocked the suspects’ car with his patrol car and ordered the men at gunpoint to put up their hands.

Smith put the car in reverse and sped away but crashed into a brick wall near the parking lot as the sergeant chased them in his patrol car, according to police.

The officer pulled up behind the Chrysler and got out of his vehicle.

Nickerson emerged from the front passenger seat of the Chrysler and fired at the sergeant, two shots striking his patrol car roof and lights, Anderson said.

“It all happened so fast the sergeant didn’t have an opportunity to return fire as he took cover,” Anderson said. “He was about seven feet from the suspect vehicle when the shots were fired.”

Smith was arrested at the scene while Nickerson and McArthur fled to a nearby wooded area, police said.

Police said they found McArthur in the wooded area near a roll of silver duct tape, a .22-caliber semiautomatic handgun, less than five grams of cocaine in small plastic baggies, Vicodin narcotic painkillers, and a small bag of Ecstasy pills, an illegal amphetamine club drug.

A manager at the nearby Best Western hotel on 14 Mile Road called police when he saw a man enter the building through a back door.

Police arrested Nickerson in a second-floor hallway there and recovered a .380 semiautomatic handgun, a switchblade and some clothes from an elevator.

Police said they found the .38-caliber handgun near the suspects’ vehicle. Inside the car police say they recovered about 4 grams of cocaine.

The woman accused up setting up the failed robbery is expected to be charged later.

McArthur is charged with possession of a firearm by a felon, two felony firearm offenses and cocaine possession. He is jailed on $1.5 million bond.

Smith is jailed on $105,000 bond on charges of fleeing police and cocaine possession.

The three suspects are scheduled for pre-exam conferences in Madison Heights District Court at 8 a.m. Nov. 10.

Contact Michael P. McConnell at mike.mcconnell©dailytribune.com or at (586) 783-0269