Woman escapes being kidnapped and worse

By Charles Sercombe

A 20-year-old Hamtramck woman barely escaped what would likely have been a rape and murder last Sunday.

According to police and news reports, the woman, who would only identify herself as Amanda, said she was with friends outside a Lumpkin St. house Sunday evening when a man armed with a revolver approached them.

The man, later identified as Arthur Paschal, 44, ordered Amanda’s friends into the house and jabbed a gun into Amanda’s waist and told her to get in the car or he would kill her.

As it turned out, Paschal had served 17 years in prison for murder and had just been let out a year ago. However, Paschal failed to follow parole and was wanted for being a parole absconder.

Amanda said she got in Paschal’s car but then thought she’d be better off killed than to stay in the car. She bolted out of the car and ran, she said. No shots were fired.

During this time, her friends had called police.

Strangely, instead of driving away, Paschal drove around the block and back to the house. Police got a description of the car and caught up with Paschal at St. Aubin and Caniff.

A chase ensued and police apprehended Paschal in the Van Dyke-Eight Mile area where Paschal crashed into a building.

Hamtramck’s Chief of Detectives Dan Misiak said despite the risk of a high-speed chase officers were not about to call it off because Paschal was a danger to the community at large.

“If we had not caught him, he was going to do it right away to somebody else,” Misiak said.

Misiak also praised the officers involved in the chase, saying it was “textbook” example of how to do a chase the right way.

Paschal has been arraigned on 10 felony charges and faces mandatory life in prison if convicted. His preliminary examination will be July 15 in Hamtramck 31st District Court.

Misiak added that Amanda did the right thing by running away. He said it was likely Paschal would have raped and possibly killed her.