...They described Rose Cobb as a sweet, kind person full of grace and dignity. She was always willing to listen to other people and help with their troubles.. [Vincent Smothers] told officers of the multijurisdictional Violent Crimes Task Force that Sgt. David Cobb hired him to kill Rose Cobb, 47, on Dec. 26 while she was sitting in a vehicle in a CVS parking lot... Smothers confessed to killing Rose Cobb and nine other people...Detroit cop held in hit on his wife Authorities arrest 2nd man in killing at CVS, suspect him in slayings of eight others for hire.
The Detroit News
Paul Egan and Francis X. Donnelly
April 21, 2008
[Excerpts] Authorities on Sunday arrested a Detroit police sergeant accused of putting out a contract on his wife after earlier arresting the accused "hitman," a 27-year-old Detroiter who could be responsible for as many as nine killings. Sgt. David Cobb, 38, who works in the department's eastern district, was arrested without incident at his home early Sunday morning, police said. His wife, Rose Cobb, 47, was fatally shot in the head several times on Dec. 26, 2007, as she sat in the couple's van in the parking lot of a CVS pharmacy on East Jefferson. David Cobb was shopping inside the store at the time.
The arrest of Cobb came hours after a multi-jurisdictional violent crime task force arrested Vincent Smothers, 27, in Macomb County's Shelby Township. Police questioning of Smothers linked him to the Cobb killing and much more. Smothers described himself as a professional hitman who was paid $1,500 by David Cobb to kill Rose Cobb and who also was responsible for a long string of killings, police said... The man Vincent Smothers is suspected of killing for, David Cobb, had been suspected of involvement in his wife's death but had denied wrongdoing, officials said. Rose Cobb's family, who had held a vigil for her in January, said they were stunned by the arrest of her husband. "I mean, I'm just very shocked," said a Hamtramck nephew who declined to give his name. "I don't know what to say." Workers at Hutzel Women's Hospital, where Rose Cobb worked as a social worker, said they also were stunned by the arrest. They described Rose Cobb as a sweet, kind person full of grace and dignity. She was always willing to listen to other people and help with their troubles... "I just miss her very much," said Renee Crosby, an administrative assistant in the hospital's social work department... [Full article here]
..."He seemed to be levelheaded... He seemed to be insightful. He seemed to be well-reasoned"...
Ex-con: Cop hired me to kill his wife
Detroit sergeant arrested in parking lot shooting
Detroit Free Press
By Ben Schmitt and Peggy Walsh-Sarnecki
April 21, 2008
[Excerpts] A man who says a Detroit police sergeant hired him to kill his wife is expected to be arraigned today in 36th District Court in Detroit. Vincent Smothers, 27, was arrested Saturday night in Shelby Township after police received a tip from an informant. He told officers of the multijurisdictional Violent Crimes Task Force that Sgt. David Cobb hired him to kill Rose Cobb, 47, on Dec. 26 while she was sitting in a vehicle in a CVS parking lot on East Jefferson and Dickerson... Police said Smothers told officers that David Cobb, who was inside the store at the time of the shooting, paid him to kill his wife... [Cobb's] status with the department is unclear today. A spokesperson at the Southwest District confirmed Cobb is being held and will likely be arraigned on felony charges Tuesday and that Smothers would be arraigned at 8 a.m. today... Neighbors near Cobb's home on Edlie Circle off East Jefferson said they saw police take Cobb away. They said he walked out of the house without shoes, but police later went inside his home to get them. Rose Cobb was shot multiple times in the head through a side window of the couple's minivan, police said at the time. Cobb also had been a Wayne State University Law School student. Mike Taylor, a third-year law student, said he had shared a class with Cobb the last four semesters and noticed Cobb stopped coming to class about a month ago. Taylor, 24, said he and Cobb sometimes talked about class, but not their personal lives. Taylor said he knew Cobb's wife had been slain, but said Sunday's arrest surprised him. "He seemed to be levelheaded," he said. "He seemed to be insightful. He seemed to be well-reasoned"... [Full article here]
(Brace yourselves for this being connected in the end to the murder of Tamara Greene, and for the order for that hit possibly coming from a city employee as well.)
Thank you to all law enforcement who were involved for what's been accomplished with these two arrests. It makes all the difference.
Previous blog entries:
- Friday, December 28, 2007 - [MI] SGT COBB'S WIFE SHOT DEAD IN PARKING LOT
- Saturday, January 12, 2008 - [MI] Sgt. Cobb not at vigil for his murdered wife, Rose
Detroit cop held in hit on his wife
ReplyDeleteAuthorities arrest 2nd man in killing at CVS, suspect him in slayings of eight others for hire.
The Detroit News
Paul Egan and Francis X. Donnelly
April 21, 2008
DETROIT -- Authorities on Sunday arrested a Detroit police sergeant accused of putting out a contract on his wife after earlier arresting the accused "hitman," a 27-year-old Detroiter who could be responsible for as many as nine killings.
Sgt. David Cobb, 38, who works in the department's eastern district, was arrested without incident at his home early Sunday morning, police said.
His wife, Rose Cobb, 47, was fatally shot in the head several times on Dec. 26, 2007, as she sat in the couple's van in the parking lot of a CVS pharmacy on East Jefferson. David Cobb was shopping inside the store at the time.
The arrest of Cobb came hours after a multi-jurisdictional violent crime task force arrested Vincent Smothers, 27, in Macomb County's Shelby Township. Police questioning of Smothers linked him to the Cobb killing and much more.
Smothers described himself as a professional hitman who was paid $1,500 by David Cobb to kill Rose Cobb and who also was responsible for a long string of killings, police said.
When arrested Saturday night, Smothers was wanted by Detroit police for first-degree murder on a warrant issued on April 11 by 36th District Court in Detroit.
That murder warrant related to a June 21, 2007, drug house shooting on the east side of Detroit, in which a man and woman were killed and another woman was critically injured.
Smothers and another man targeted the victims, seeking money and drugs, an FBI agent who was looking for Smothers said in a sworn affidavit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Detroit.
Smothers and the other man entered the apartment on Gravier, tied up the two women occupants and ransacked the apartment, according to the affidavit and news reports of the incident.
Smothers then shot the two occupants, killing one of them, the affidavit said.
Smothers and the other man then went out to the parking lot, where they shot and killed a man who had been lured to the apartment, the affidavit said.
Killed were Clarence Cherry, 35, who police say was shot at least 15 times outside the apartment building, and Karisa Rice, 18, who was inside.
Lakari Kareem Berry, 27, also known as James Morgan III, who was arrested in 2007 at a motel in St. Clair Shores, is serving a life sentence for murder in connection with that incident.
Both Cobb and Smothers were in custody Sunday night and neither had been arraigned.
Smothers has served time in state prison for firearms offenses.
He was described by an uncle Sunday as a man who was profoundly and adversely affected by the 1999 handgun killing of his 15-year-old sister in the driveway of his family's home on Vinton in Detroit.
The girl, a promising athlete who had been offered volleyball scholarships, was shooting hoops on Easter Sunday when she was shot by a man who came from next door to threaten another of her brothers, said Simon Smothers, an uncle of Vincent Smothers.
Family members say that "after that, he lost it," Simon Smothers said.
"That boy must have felt the world was nothing but murder and if someone could murder his baby sister like that ... he may hate the world enough to murder people."
Still, "there's no excuse for murdering anybody," Simon Smothers said.
Vincent Smothers, who attended Kettering High School in Detroit, is the son of Willie Frank Smothers, a former Chrysler employee and former construction worker who died of cancer in 1999, not long after his daughter's killing, the uncle said.
The man Vincent Smothers is suspected of killing for, David Cobb, had been suspected of involvement in his wife's death but had denied wrongdoing, officials said.
Rose Cobb's family, who had held a vigil for her in January, said they were stunned by the arrest of her husband.
"I mean, I'm just very shocked," said a Hamtramck nephew who declined to give his name. "I don't know what to say."
Workers at Hutzel Women's Hospital, where Rose Cobb worked as a social worker, said they also were stunned by the arrest.
They described Rose Cobb as a sweet, kind person full of grace and dignity. She was always willing to listen to other people and help with their troubles, they said.
"I just miss her very much," said Renee Crosby, an administrative assistant in the hospital's social work department.
After the arrest, which happened about 6:30 a.m., neighbors said they were surprised to see an armored vehicle and SWAT team descend upon their neighborhood on the city's east side.
They said they were even more surprised to see the person being marched from his condominium on Edlie Circle -- a police officer.
"They seemed fine to me," neighbor Gwen Johnson said about the Cobbs' marriage. "They're just regular people."
Detroit News freelance writer David Grant and Staff Writer Rob Snell contributed to this report. You can reach Paul Egan at (313) 222-2069 or pegan@detnews.com.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080421/METRO/804210352
Ex-con: Cop hired me to kill his wife
ReplyDeleteDetroit sergeant arrested in parking lot shooting
Detroit Free Press
BY BEN SCHMITT and PEGGY WALSH-SARNECKI • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS • April 21, 2008
A man who says a Detroit police sergeant hired him to kill his wife is expected to be arraigned today in 36th District Court in Detroit.
Vincent Smothers, 27, was arrested Saturday night in Shelby Township after police received a tip from an informant.
He told officers of the multijurisdictional Violent Crimes Task Force that Sgt. David Cobb hired him to kill Rose Cobb, 47, on Dec. 26 while she was sitting in a vehicle in a CVS parking lot on East Jefferson and Dickerson on Detroit's east side.
Smothers confessed to killing Rose Cobb and nine other people, police said.
Officers from the Detroit police special response team arrested Cobb, 38, of Detroit without incident around 6 a.m. Sunday at his home. He remains in police custody.
Detroit police spokesman James Tate confirmed Cobb's arrest. "Sgt. Cobb's arrest is part of an ongoing investigation," Tate said.
Police said Smothers told officers that David Cobb, who was inside the store at the time of the shooting, paid him to kill his wife.
Details weren't immediately available on all of the other slayings he said he's responsible for.
Cobb works with the department's Eastern District. His status with the department is unclear today. A spokesperson at the Southwest District confirmed Cobb is being held and will likely be arraigned on felony charges Tuesday and that Smothers would be arraigned at 8 a.m. today.
Police wouldn't disclose what the charges would be. Maria Miller, spokeswoman for the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office, would not comment.
An arrest warrant was issued April 11 by the 36th District Court for Smothers on charges of first-degree murder, felony murder, assault with intent to murder and firearm offenses stemming from a June 21 shooting in the 17000 block of Gravier in Detroit in which he and an accomplice allegedly shot three people, killing two at an apartment complex.
The accomplice has been convicted of the crimes, according to a sworn affidavit filed April 15 by the FBI with the U.S. District Court in Detroit.
Smothers has two arrests, both in 1999. He was arrested in Wayne County for carrying a concealed weapon. He also was arrested in Oakland County for carrying a concealed weapon and for possessing stolen property. Smothers was sentenced to 1 year in prison for the Wayne County offense and 2 years, 8 months for the Oakland County crimes. He was discharged from his parole in 2003, according to Michigan Department of Corrections records.
Neighbors near Cobb's home on Edlie Circle off East Jefferson said they saw police take Cobb away. They said he walked out of the house without shoes, but police later went inside his home to get them.
Rose Cobb was shot multiple times in the head through a side window of the couple's minivan, police said at the time.
Cobb also had been a Wayne State University Law School student.
Mike Taylor, a third-year law student, said he had shared a class with Cobb the last four semesters and noticed Cobb stopped coming to class about a month ago. Taylor, 24, said he and Cobb sometimes talked about class, but not their personal lives.
Taylor said he knew Cobb's wife had been slain, but said Sunday's arrest surprised him.
"He seemed to be levelheaded," he said. "He seemed to be insightful. He seemed to be well-reasoned."
Contact BEN SCHMITT at 313-223-4296 or bcshmitt@freepress.com. Staff writer Zachary Gorchow contributed to this report.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080421/NEWS06/804210335
To see latest on Rose Cobb here on the blog:
ReplyDeletehttp://behindthebluewall.blogspot.com/search?q=rose+cobb