Murder charges against Na'Ziyah Harris • Fallen tree kills boy on field trip • Tigers 1 win away in playoffs

FRIDAY NEWS HIT – A group of children were on a field trip to Howell Nature Center on Thursday when a tree suddenly fell, killing one of them.

Students at Our Lady of Victory Catholic School in Northville were learning how to start a fire when a tree fell and hit a 12-year-old boy. He was flown to Mott Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor, where he died.

“They started hearing a noise, a crackling sound, like a tree falling, and everyone started running,” Sheriff Michael Murphy said. “What a tragedy. I’m really at a loss for words.”

The investigation into the cause of the tree fall is ongoing.

“No work was done,” Murphy said. “We didn’t have any strong winds or anything like that. For some reason it just decided it was time to tip over.”

Sources tell FOX 2 the trunk of the tree may have been rotting and that's why it fell.

Prosecution in the Na'Ziyah Harris case

Jarvis Butts, the man accused of sexually assaulting and murdering Na'Ziyah Harris, is expected to face a judge on Friday.

Butts, 41, of Highland Park, is charged with three counts: the murder of Harris and two other counts of sexual assault.

He is charged with first-degree premeditated murder, second-degree criminal sexual conduct and sexually abusive material for the murder of Harris, who was 13 years old.

Harris was last seen boarding a bus in Detroit on January 9th. Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said Harris texted with Butts and met with him the day she disappeared.

Her body was never found, but Worthy said

Worthy also accused Butts in connection with the sexual assault of two other girls. On Thursday, she announced that charges would be filed against him for sexually abusing two other girls under the age of 13.

The prosecutor said one of the victims, now 20 years old, was allegedly abused between April 2012 and April 14, while the other victim, now 11 years old, was abused from July 2015 to July 2017.

He is charged with five counts of second-degree sex crimes and one count of first-degree sex crimes for those attacks.

Court records show Butts was previously imprisoned for sexually assaulting a child in 2004.

“Mr. Butts targeted and befriended women to engage in sexual relationships with their young daughters,” Worthy said. “He was a classic and experienced dog groomer and pedophile.”

Back on the bench after the teenager was handcuffed

A Detroit judge who was temporarily removed from office after ordering a teenager to wear prison uniforms and handcuffs during a field trip is back on the bench but facing conviction for speeding and other relatively minor crimes.

Judge Kenneth King lost his court duties in August and was ordered to undergo social-emotional training by the chief judge of the 36th District Court. Instead of taking on important hearings involving serious crimes, he returned to the court's traffic division this week.

“We appreciate his efforts in preparing for this role and wish him success as he transitions into this new responsibility,” Judge William McConico said in a written statement.

King's attorney, Todd Perkins, said the judge is willing to work anywhere in the court.

“He really understands the concept of teamwork and fully embraces it,” Perkins said Thursday.

King got into trouble for shaming a 15-year-old girl for falling asleep and having what he said was a bad attitude while she attended his courtroom with other teenagers.

He ordered Eva Goodman to put on prison clothes and handcuffs – all while the excursion was shown on a livestream video. King also threatened her with juvenile detention in front of her classmates before releasing her.

The Tigers are one win away from the playoffs

The Detroit Tigers are just one win away from securing a playoff spot for the first time in a decade.

Justyn-Henry Malloy's sacrifice fly in the eighth inning helped the Detroit Tigers recover from a 3-0 deficit and move closer to the postseason with a 4-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday afternoon.

Detroit, which has won five straight, entered the game tied with Kansas City for the second and third wild-card spots in the American League, two games ahead of the Minnesota Twins.

The Tigers trailed 3-2 with one out in the eighth, but Riley Greene hit a single off Garrett Cleavinger (7-5) and Matt Vierling drew a walk.

Colt Keith tied the game with an RBI single and brought Malloy – the last player on the Tigers' bench – on to score for Kerry Carpenter. He lifted a fly ball to center and Vierling beat Jose Siri's throw with ease.

Beau Brieske (4-4) earned the win with two innings of relief. Jason Foley threw out the ninth pitch for his 27th save.

Good Samaritans save wandering toddler

Alert drivers saved a child's life this week when they spotted a small child wandering on a Macomb County road.

“It was the start of rush hour and we all know 21 Mile Road and Hall Road are very busy at that time of day,” Rita Skirpan said. “And we all tried to get around it.”

Skirpan was on Tilch Road in Macomb Township on Wednesday when she saw a girl who appeared to be less than two years old.

“I saw a very small girl next to the mailbox on the street,” Skirpan said. “And I remember saying to my husband, 'She's a little too close to the road.'”

Skirpan said another driver stopped and blocked the road with his vehicle.

“This man drove off the road because of oncoming traffic and stopped his Jeep,” she said. “He decided to take the hit and I felt love for that man.”

That driver and another woman grabbed the girl and brought her safely back to her parents.

The Pulse: Election Security and Gender in Politics

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson speaks about efforts to keep elections safe. And could Kamala Harris' gender affect her chances of winning the presidency? A new survey shows it's possible.

Live on FOX 2

Daily forecast

Today it is cloudy, but mostly dry. However, rain is forecast.

What else do we see?

1. A notorious motorcycle club, the Highwaymen Motorcycle Clubhouse, switches gears and puts its Corktown headquarters up for sale. The highwaymen have called the building on Michigan Avenue their home for 70 years.
2. Former Inkster Mayor Patrick Wimberly has pleaded guilty in a $100,000 bribery case, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced Thursday.
3. A former patient of a Taylor doctor suspected of running a pill mill now wonders how many other lives were ruined by him. Elizabeth Dew said she began to cry when she learned her former doctor was facing such allegations.
4. Jessica Lenore Kellar, who pleaded guilty to drunkenly striking and killing a motorcyclist in 2023, was sentenced this week to 2 1/2 to 15 years in prison.
5. For the second time this year, Michigan Medicine is grappling with a leak of sensitive data, informing tens of thousands of people that an employee's email address was compromised due to a cyberattack. The employee accepted an unsolicited request that gave hackers access to his email account and its contents.

Deadly Storm Helene was downgraded to a tropical storm after making landfall in Florida

Helene continues to weaken and is now a tropical storm after making landfall along Florida's Big Bend region late Thursday evening as a strong Category 4 hurricane, unleashing deadly impacts on the Southeast, including damaging hurricane-force wind gusts, an “unsurvivable storm.” “Storm surge and… torrential, torrential rain.

At least two people were reportedly killed in the storm in Wheeler County, Georgia, after a mobile home was damaged during one of the many tornado warnings issued. A third death in Georgia is also under investigation after a vehicle reportedly crashed into a tree in Colquitt County, according to a report from FOX 5 in Atlanta.

And at least one person died in Florida in a crash on Interstate 4 in the Tampa area that left a highway sign hanging on the roof of a vehicle.

Helene made landfall about 10 miles west-southwest of Perry, Florida, at 11:10 p.m. ET on Thursday, and impacts were felt throughout the Southeast and parts of the Mid-Atlantic as the monster storm moved further inland and began to weaken.

While wind remains a concern, flash flooding is the biggest threat to Helene as the region experiences torrential rain, causing rivers and streams to overflow their banks, spilling onto streets and communities, trapping residents.