WE CARE ABOUT YOU AND YOUR CAR
JULY 9, 2025 Vol. 45, No. 14
WARREN POLICE CELEBRATE PROMOTIONS, NEW HIRES 3A
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B & B COLLISION
Defense argues improper turn lead to fatal police-involved crash WARREN — Tensions rose in the 37th District Court during an exam hearing for a former Warren police officer who hit a vehicle, killing both passengers in late 2024. James Burke was driving a Warren police SUV without emergency lights and sirens at speeds of over 110 miles per hour on Schoenherr Road in Warren at around 5 a.m. Sept. 30, 2024, when he hit a white
Dodge Durango that was attempting to turn left from Schoenherr Road onto Prospect Avenue. The passengers of the Durango, Cedric Hayden Jr., 34 and DeJuan Pettis, 33, were both killed. The officers sustained serious injuries as well. Burke is facing two counts of manslaughter with a motor vehicle, a 15-year felony; one count of moving violation causing serious impairment of a body function, a 93-day misdemeanor and willful neglect of duty by a public officer, a one-year misdemeanor. See CRASH on page 13A
Photo by Brian Wells
Former Warren police officer James Burke is seated at the defendant’s table during an exam hearing June 25 in the 37th District Court.
Detroit Memorial Park cemetery celebrates centennial BY MARIA ALLARD allard@candgnews.com
WARREN — Prior to the year 1925, when a Black Detroiter died, oftentimes there was not a proper burial or funeral. Because of discrimination, many Black
families buried their loved ones late at night, entered cemeteries through side gates, or laid them to rest in the very back of the graveyard. Sometimes, too, they were flat out denied a final resting place. By 1924, Charles Diggs Sr., a Black state See CEMETERY on page 22A
Detroit Memorial Park in Warren is celebrating its 100-year anniversary. With the help of several Black leaders, it opened in 1925 so that Black families could have a proper burial for their loved ones. Photo by Patricia O’Blenes
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BY BRIAN WELLS bwells@candgnews.com