A 24-year-old man is accused of firing shots that struck a bystander before forcing his way into an Eastpointe home and holding a woman and her 7-year-old son at gunpoint, threatening to kill them. Police say officers eventually got the woman and her son safely out of the house after ordering the suspect to come out himself.
Robert Terrance Phillips-Brown was arraigned on charges of assault with intent to murder, unlawful imprisonment, possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, reckless use of a firearm, and three counts of felony firearm, according to CBS News Detroit. Prosecutors allege that on August 16, Phillips-Brown fired several shots at a 39-year-old woman, striking a 21-year-old man in the leg and damaging a nearby car in the process. Authorities allege he then entered the woman's Eastpointe home and threatened to kill her and her young son while holding a gun, according to a statement from the Macomb County Prosecutor's Office.
Bond Set at $750,000, GPS Tether Ordered
Phillips-Brown was arraigned before Magistrate Mark J. Makoski in 38th District Court, which set bond at $750,000 cash or surety with no 10 percent option, per the same prosecutor's statement. He was also ordered to wear a GPS steel cuff tether while the case proceeds. The court, located on Nine Mile Road, shares its building with the Eastpointe Police Department and handles felony preliminary exams, misdemeanor trials, and civil disputes up to $25,000.
Macomb County Prosecutor Peter Lucido addressed the case directly, saying, “Violence, the use of firearms to threaten innocent people, and putting children in danger will not be tolerated.” His office added that it will work to ensure people who commit violent crimes face the consequences of their actions. Phillips-Brown is scheduled for a Probable Cause Conference on September 1 at 8 a.m. before 38th District Court Judge Kathleen G. Galen, who is the elected district court judge in Eastpointe.
Steep Penalties Under Michigan Law
The charges Phillips-Brown faces carry significant statutory exposure. Assault with intent to murder under Michigan Penal Code MCL 750.83 can bring a sentence of life or any term of years in state prison, while unlawful imprisonment under MCL 750.349b — defined as forcibly restraining someone using a weapon or secret confinement — carries up to 15 years and a $20,000 fine, according to legal background compiled by the Nicole Blank Becker law firm.
Each of the three felony firearm counts against Phillips-Brown carries a mandatory two-year prison term for a first offense that must be served consecutively to, and before, any sentence for the underlying felony, explains the Rasor Law Firm. That stacking is why prosecutors filed three separate firearm counts rather than one. Separately, Michigan's prohibited-person firearm statute, MCL 750.224f, makes possession of a firearm or ammunition a five-year felony for disqualified individuals, and 2026 updates extended those prohibitions to people convicted of certain domestic violence misdemeanors within the past eight years, according to Kevin Bessant Law. What specifically disqualified Phillips-Brown from legally possessing a firearm has not been made public.
A Pattern of Violent Cases in Eastpointe
This case adds to a string of serious violent-crime prosecutions Macomb County has pursued out of Eastpointe this month. Just days earlier, on August 11, prosecutors arraigned a 49-year-old Detroit-area man in the same 38th District Court on an assault with intent to murder charge tied to an August 8 stabbing outside an Eastpointe motel, with Magistrate Makoski setting bond at $1 million cash or surety in that case, per the Macomb County Prosecutor's Office. Hoodline previously reported on other violent incidents along the city's Nine Mile corridor, including a shooting that left one person seriously hurt outside a Wendy's in June and the arrest of a Detroit murder suspect tied to a fatal West Virginia shooting in July.
The prosecutor's office says it has reached a record pace this year for processing domestic violence warrant requests, part of an effort under Lucido, who took office in 2021, to eliminate backlogs and speed up formal charges in violent cases. The office also reports that victim support services have expanded 67 percent compared with 2020 levels, connecting victims of violent crime with local agencies such as Turning Point in Macomb County as their cases move through court.
The specific relationship between Phillips-Brown and the 39-year-old woman, along with what may have motivated the shooting and hostage standoff, has not been disclosed. Prosecutors have not detailed the underlying criminal record that made Phillips-Brown a prohibited person under Michigan firearm law. All charges remain allegations at this stage, and Phillips-Brown has not been convicted of any crime.
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