400 Fewer Gang Members, Rapists, Murderers on Street: Report

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DETROIT, MI – More than 8,000 gang members, rapists and other violent criminals have been rounded up in Detroit across the country as part of high-impact fugitive apprehension initiative, the Justice Department said Wednesday.

Arrests in the six-week nationwide crackdown known as Operation Violence Reduction12 included 400 in Detroit and southeast Michigan, according to a statement from Deputy Attorney General Sally Q. Yates and U.S. Marshals Service Deputy Director David Harlow.

Nationally, 648 gang members and others wanted on charges were arrested, including 559 for homicide and 946 for sexual offences. The operation took place between Feb. 1-March 11, according to the statement.

Among those arrested in Detroit was alleged serial rapist Melvin Thomas, identified by the Wayne County Sheriff’s Rape Task Force and tied by a DNA match to a rape that occurred in 1995, The Detroit News reports.

Also, Christopher Housel, who was wanted for the attempted murder of a college student in Ohio set on fire at a party, was arrested in Hartland.

A Detroit fugitive, Timothy Terry, wanted by police in connection to a man’s fatal shooting outside a west side Home Depot, was arrested in Ohio.

Operation VR12 was conducted nationwide in all 94 federal judicial districts, with special attention on 12 selected locations experiencing upticks in violent crime: Baltimore, MD; Brooklyn, NY; Camden, NJ; Chicago, IL; Compton, CA; Fresno, CA; Gary, IN; Milwaukee, WI; New Orleans, LA; Oakland, CA; Savannah, GA; and Washington, DC.