On the night of March 24, 2022, law enforcement officers in Southfield, Michigan, were dispatched to the Legacy Place Apartments located on Saratoga Street following a distress call received late in the evening. Upon arrival at the residence around 11:23 p.m., first responders discovered the body of Margaret Alice Mack, a 73-year-old Black female who had suffered multiple gunshot wounds.
She was pronounced dead at the scene, marking a violent end to the life of a woman described by her family as a devoted and loving matriarch.
The 911 call that alerted authorities was placed by Desjuan Tyree-Anthony Mack, the victim’s 23-year-old grandson who was also present in the apartment. He initially reported to dispatchers that he had fallen asleep and awoke to find the victim unresponsive and cold to the touch, claiming he had last seen her alive about an hour prior. However, as investigators began to examine the scene and interview him, his account of events and his relationship to the deceased began to shift. He first identified her as a family friend, then an adoptive grandmother, before finally admitting she was his biological grandmother.
During the search of the apartment, police uncovered a. 40-caliber semi-automatic pistol concealed beneath a pillow on the couch where Desjuan had been. Ballistics evidence linked the weapon to the shell casings found at the scene, and further inquiry revealed the firearm had been reported stolen from Farmington Hills in 2018. The discovery of the weapon and the inconsistencies in his statement led police to identify him as the primary suspect in the homicide.
The family was left in a state of shock and confusion, noting that Desjuan had lived with his grandmother since middle school and had recently moved back in with her. They described a close relationship between the two with no history of arguments or discord that would predict such violence. Despite the lack of a clear motive, prosecutors charged Desjuan Tyree-Anthony Mack with open murder and felony firearm possession. He was arraigned shortly after the incident and ordered to be held without bond as the legal proceedings commenced.
