On the morning of September 18, 2002, Michael Moore, a 43-year-old man from Detroit, Michigan, stepped out of his home on Lemay Street and into a moment that turned deadly. A stolen burgundy-and-gray Chevy Lumina van rolled in, and two men in black hooded sweatshirts moved with purpose. The passenger jumped out carrying a high-velocity rifle described as an AKC or SKS type and fired multiple rounds into Moore’s back, dropping him on the sidewalk as the shooter and driver sped away.
When police arrived, Moore lay dead beside spent casings, and his briefcase and sunglasses were found near the front of his house.
The van didn’t get far. According to the later summary of evidence presented in court, the assailants drove a few blocks to a house on Fairview, torched the stolen vehicle, abandoned it, and escaped in another car described as blue or green. The attack—quick, loud, and in broad daylight—left behind the kind of scene that feels both intensely personal and chillingly planned: the victim targeted at his own doorstep, the getaway route mapped, the evidence literally set on fire.
As the investigation unfolded, a longtime associate of Edward Johnigan became a key voice in the case. Tyrone Traylor testified that Johnigan had talked about buying “tools,” meaning guns, and said he planned to carry out paid “hits” for $10,000 each. Traylor told the court Johnigan mentioned a man named “Mike” on a list of intended targets, pointed out where “Mike” lived near I-94, and even identified where he worked at a clothing store. Then, Traylor testified, Johnigan later claimed he had “took care of that business,” describing a daytime ambush—catching the man coming out, spraying him with an “AK” or an “UZI,” and burning the van around the corner afterward—while also saying he hadn’t yet been paid.
Months later, police moved in. On February 19, 2003, officers arrested Johnigan at a home on Courville Street and executed a search warrant that, according to the court record, turned up multiple firearms and related items, including assault-style rifles, ammunition, and protective gear. A federal news release about the same operation described officers entering the residence, Johnigan fleeing to the basement, firing at officers, barricading himself, and surrendering after negotiations—an arrest dramatic enough to underline how dangerous investigators believed the situation was.
Johnigan was charged in connection with Michael Moore’s killing, but the courtroom ending did not bring a murder conviction for Moore. In the case tied to Moore’s death, the jury acquitted Johnigan of first-degree murder and felony-firearm, convicting him only of being a felon in possession of a firearm; he was later sentenced as a fourth habitual offender to life imprisonment on that weapons conviction. In other related proceedings described in the same record, Johnigan was convicted of first-degree murder for the killing of Larry Rogers, a separate victim, but Michael Moore’s homicide itself was left without a definitive conviction for the shooting that happened on Lemay Street that September morning.
