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Left out in brutal cold, dog ‘laid down and died,’ Detroit rescue group says

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Left out in brutal cold, dog ‘laid down and died,’ Detroit rescue group says


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Charlie, too weak to survive the sub-zero temperatures, froze to death.

A rescue group found the collared, tawny-colored male dog’s body in the Detroit snow.

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“He walked until he couldn’t,” Detroit Dog Rescue’s Executive Director Kristina Millman-Rinaldi posted on social media Wednesday, retracing its last steps by following its tracks. Charlie stumbled, she added, feeble from the cold and “laid down and died.”

People have been finding companionship in pets — particularly dogs — for thousands of years; but judging by the comments on Millman-Rinaldi’s post, some Michiganders now are struggling to understand why a pet was left out in the cold.

Recently, reports of endangered and neglected dogs have emerged as millions of people in the Midwest and East Coast cope with temperatures so low that forecasters have urged residents to stay indoors.

To protect children, many school districts closed for at least a couple of days.

As for pets, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals urged owners to safeguard them by making sure they, too, are out of the cold and not left outside, which in some communities is a crime.

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The cold weather earlier this week, Millman-Rinaldi said, likely stopped Charlie’s heart and took his breath — and life — away. As tragic as the dog’s end was, the rescuer speculated it likely was “relief to the pain” the cold caused its body.

Protecting a ‘best friend’

Detroit Dog Rescue, a no-kill shelter, seeks to save animals.

Dogs, after all, are “man’s best friend,” a phrase that dates to the late 1700s. Frederick the Great, the King of Prussia, is said to have referred to one of his Italian Greyhounds as his best friend.

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French philosopher Voltaire concluded nature gave the dog to man for defense and pleasure. Of all animals, he wrote in 1764, the dog is the most faithful, calling it: “le meilleur ami que puisse avoir l’homme.”

In an 1870 court case in Warrensburg, Missouri, a lawyer, George Vest, representing a farmer whose pet, Old Drum, was killed, made an emotional plea to the jury, explaining a dog is “the one absolutely unselfish friend that a man can have in this selfish world.”

The farmer, who was seeking damages, won the lawsuit.

Almost a century later, in 1958, a statue of the black and tan hound was cast with the support of contributions from dog lovers everywhere and erected outside the courthouse where the case was tried.

And in 2007, real estate magnate Leona Helmsley died leaving $12 million to her dog, Trouble, proving that a dog could be a woman’s best friend, too. Helmsley reportedly also dedicated other assets, worth $5 billion to $8 billion, to the care of more dogs.

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‘I’m not leaving them’

Still, over the years, plenty of other people have neglected their best friends.

Millman-Rinaldi mentioned she also saw dogs at a southwest Detroit residence in the cold. She described how whining, freezing animals held up their padded paws, “trying to get out of the cold.”

Four dogs recently perished in and around Indianapolis because they lacked shelter and warmth, Newsweek reported. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals documented that at least three dogs were saved from extreme cold situations.

One dog, PETA said, was freed from a vehicle that broke through the ice on a Minnesota lake; a second, was pulled out of an icy Maryland pond, and a third, in Massachusetts, was rescued after getting stuck on a beaver dam.

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The Humane Society of the United States, based in Washington, D.C., warned that dogs and cats — despite the “misconception that the fur on their backs” will protect them — suffer from winter cold.

The society added that leaving pets outside in extremely cold weather is cruel.

As for Charlie, Millman-Rinaldi said the rescue organization lifted the dog’s lifeless body out of the snow, gave it a name, and then, a dignified goodbye. But, the executive director added, the dog deserved better.

“Oh, sweet boy, I’m so sorry,” Millman-Rinaldi said in her post, explaining why, in part, she and others picked up the frozen bodies and put them to rest: “I’m not leaving them for kids to see on their snow day.”

Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com.

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Detroit, MI

Police search for suspect, accomplice after teen injured in shooting outside Detroit school gym

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Police search for suspect, accomplice after teen injured in shooting outside Detroit school gym



The Detroit Police Department is searching for a suspect and an accomplice in connection with a shooting last week that injured a teen outside a school gym.

The shooting happened in the 3400 block of St. Aubin, the same area where the Detroit Edison Public School Academy’s Early College of Excellence is located. Police say that at about 8:27 p.m. on Feb. 27, there was an altercation inside the gym that continued outside. 

Detroit police are searching for a suspect and their accomplice in connection with a shooting outside a school.

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Detroit Police Department


Police say the suspect allegedly fired multiple shots at the victim, striking him. The teen was taken to a hospital for treatment. His current condition is unknown.

Police say the accomplice who was with the suspect was also armed.

Anyone with information is asked to call DPD’s seventh precinct at 313-596-5740, Crime Stoppers at 800-Speak Up or DetroitRewards.tv.

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Detroit, MI

Bruce Campbell announces cancer diagnosis; ‘Fear not,’ he tells fans

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Bruce Campbell announces cancer diagnosis; ‘Fear not,’ he tells fans



Treatment will delay the Royal Oak-born actor’s plans to tour his new film ‘Ernie & Emma’ this summer.

Royal Oak-born movie star and cult hero Bruce Campbell announced on social media on Monday that he has been diagnosed cancer — a type that is “treatable” but not “curable,” he said.

“I apologize if that’s a shock — it was to me too,” the “Evil Dead” star, 67, wrote in a message posted to Instagram.

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He went on to say “I’m not gonna go into any more detail,” and he didn’t. He said the public announcement had to do with scaling back appearances on his schedule, including tour dates behind his latest film, “Ernie & Emma.”

Campbell planned to show the movie June 5 at the Redford Theatre; as of Monday night, that date is still on the Redford schedule, but Campbell wrote in his note he plans to get “as well as I possibly can over the summer so that I can tour with my new movie ‘Ernie & Emma’ this fall.”

The movie is written, directed by and stars Campbell as a man who goes on a journey following the death of his wife. Campbell produced the movie alongside his wife, Ida Gearon, and filmed it in Oregon, where he now lives.

Campbell told The News in January he dedicated “Ernie & Emma” to his childhood moviemaking pals, including Scott Spiegel, who died of a heart attack in September 2025.

“It’s a callback to the carefree days of Super 8, where we could do whatever the f–k we wanted to do,” Campbell said of “Ernie & Emma.” “So I thought, ‘All the boys are responsible for this,’ so they’re all in there.”

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Campbell got his start making movies around Metro Detroit with his childhood pal, Sam Raimi. Campbell starred in Raimi’s “Evil Dead” trilogy and has since appeared in most of Raimi’s films; Campbell makes a brief appearance in a photograph in the background of an early scene in Raimi’s latest, “Send Help.”

He’s also an author; Campbell’s autobiography “If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor” was published in 2001.

In his post on social media, Campbell thanked fans and said he was not out to elicit sympathy.

“Fear not, I am a tough old son-of-a-bitch and I have great support, so I expect to be around for a while,” he wrote.

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agraham@detroitnews.com





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Michigan State Police sends message to drivers after trooper involved in hit and run:

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Michigan State Police sends message to drivers after trooper involved in hit and run:


“Slow down and move over” is the message that Michigan State Police is sending to drivers after one of its troopers in a parked patrol car was struck while investigating a crash this weekend. The driver of that vehicle fled the scene.

Michigan State Police tells CBS News Detroit that we’re two months into the year, and it has had six incidents across the state where patrol cars were struck by oncoming vehicles. One of those incidents occurred on Sunday evening.

“Could have been much more tragic,” said MSP Lieutenant Rene Gonzalez, First District public information officer.

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Michigan State Police


Gonzalez says on Sunday, an MSP trooper was near M-10 and Schaefer Highway in Detroit, simply doing his job, when his patrol car was hit from behind.

“Trooper was out there, and he was investigating a crash when, at the time, a Jeep SUV drove into the rear of the parked vehicle,” Gonzalez said.

The impact slid the trooper’s car into a concrete wall. The 29-year-old Detroit woman driving the Jeep SUV struck the center median, got out of the vehicle, and ran away.

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“Not sure why they did it. Maybe not paying attention if they were distracted. They’re attempting to locate her at this time,” said Lt. Gonzalez.

The trooper walked away with minor injuries. Gonzalez says this incident is an example of why Michigan’s Move Over Law was put in place many years ago. The law, which went into effect in 2019, requires drivers to move over into the next lane and reduce their speed by at least 10 mph when emergency or service vehicles — police, fire, rescue, ambulance and road service — have their lights activated. 

Drivers who are not able to move over are still required to reduce their speed.

“Trying to do our jobs, however, people are not paying attention. The law is easy. It’s simple. You see us, you see our lights activated, you have to slow down ten miles below the posted speed limit, and then if able, move over to the next occupied available lane,” Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez says crashes like this can be deadly and often avoided.

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“One life lost over something that was a totally preventable crash, it’s way too much. We’re asking that you slow down and move over when you see our lights. It’s a simple message that we’ve been pushing out for years,” he said.

Sunday’s crash remains under investigation. Michigan State Police detectives are still working to track down the 29-year-old suspect.

In the meantime, police are out enforcing the Move Over Law.



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