Hatchet-Wielding Man Chases People Outside Troy Gym: Police

TROY, MI — A man was arrested after chasing some acquaintances around a Troy gym's parking lot with a hatchet and striking their car with the weapon, police said.

The man was charged with felonious assault and malicious destruction of property, and taken to the Troy police lockup facility, police said.

Acquaintances told police a man they knew from school chased them with a hatchet around the Lifetime Fitness parking lot at 4700 Investment Drive in Troy on March 29 at 5 p.m., police said.

Once the residents tried to escape the parking lot in their car, the hatchet-wielding man blocked them in with his vehicle and began running around their car, brandishing the hatchet, police said.

The hatchet-wielding man then attacked their car, striking their rear passenger side window with the hatchet, but no one was injured in the attack, police said.

The residents then escaped the parking lot and waited at a safe location for officers, police said.

Officers then found the vehicle that boxed the residents in at the gym's parking lot as it was heading north on Crooks Road at Long Lake Road and stopped the vehicle, police said.

The driver was the hatchet-wielding man, police said, and he admitted to having a hatchet in the vehicle. He said he was looking for someone who threatened him but targeted the wrong person, police said.

No further information was made available by Troy police as of Thursday morning regarding the attack.