Freland Lee Pridgen, a 16-year-old Black male from Detroit, was shot on the city’s west side on Friday afternoon, November 25, 2016, during what was supposed to be a family holiday visit, and he later died from the injuries; his obituary lists his death as November 26, 2016. ([O. H. Pye, III
Funeral Home
Accounts from relatives and investigators traced the violence back to a flare-up over Thanksgiving food at a home on Ward, where a verbal argument escalated in moments.
His mother later described a phone call from him just before the shooting, warning that his uncle had pulled a gun during the dispute. Authorities said the argument ended with his uncle retrieving a shotgun from another room, and the weapon discharging and striking Freland; family members said he was rushed to Sinai-Grace Hospital, with reports describing him as stabilized for a time before he died.
As the family grieved, police launched a search for the uncle, James Lee Graham, who fled after the shooting and remained at large for several days. The manhunt ended when officers took him into custody near Joy Road and Northfield Street, with reports describing the arrest as the result of a traffic stop and saying he was captured without incident.
Prosecutors moved quickly once Graham was in custody, filing an open-murder case along with weapons-related counts, including felon-in-possession and felony-firearm. In court proceedings soon afterward, he was arraigned on the open-murder charge and held in jail as the case advanced, while loved ones held vigils and tried to make sense of how a petty, domestic argument had turned into a killing inside their own family circle.
The case ultimately ended in a guilty plea and a lengthy prison sentence: Graham was reported to have pleaded guilty in the case and received a minimum term of 18 years in prison. Michigan’s Department of Corrections later listed his conviction as second-degree murder with an additional felony-firearm sentence, showing a sentencing date in July 2017 and an earliest release date in late November 2036.
