WYOMING, Mich. — A teen tied to a summer shooting and break-ins at numerous businesses across metro Grand Rapids is now charged with armed robbery for a heist last week at a Wyoming cellphone store.
The armed robbery charge against 17-year-old Lorontay R. McIntosh is the most serious offense in a young life peppered with crimes going back to when he was 14.
In fact, McIntosh was out on bond in two felony cases when the armed robbery at Metro by T-Mobile unfolded last week.
Police say he and others, all wearing dark clothing and ski masks, entered the store on Clyde Park Avenue at 44th Street SW the evening of March 10 armed with a silver handgun.
They filled a large tan purse-style bag with stolen phones and fled in a stolen white pickup truck, according to police and court records.
One of the phones had a GPS tracker, according to court records. It led police to an apartment on 50th Street SW where McIntosh and several others were taken into custody.
According to court records, the shirt McIntosh was wearing matched a shirt worn by one of the suspects in the store.
McIntosh was found in a bedroom with stolen phones, including the phone box with the GPS tracker, the tan purse-style bag and a silver handgun, court records show.
Police also found two ski masks and dark clothing. McIntosh admitted to touching the gun, "however not in the store during the commission of the robbery,'' according to a probable cause affidavit.
McIntosh, who has criminal cases dating back to 2017, was arraigned Monday in Wyoming District Court. A judge ordered McIntosh held on a $250,000 bond. He has a probable cause conference set for March 24.
A few days after that hearing, McIntosh is on the docket in Kent County Circuit Court for a status conference tied two his two felony cases from September.
He’s accused of breaking into Kaz Transmissions on Plainfield Avenue NE in Plainfield Township and stealing a 2006 Chevy Tahoe. It happened sometime during the overnight hours of Sept. 5 into Sept. 6.
That Tahoe, which belonged to Kaz co-owner Josh Kasnowicz, was located two days later during a traffic stop near Worden Street and Geneva Avenue SE in Grand Rapids. Several occupants fled the Tahoe and ran into a nearby home, court records show.
The Tahoe “was involved in a crime spree in the greater Grand Rapids area where it was captured on camera at the scene of multiple other break-ins and a shooting where a 12-year-old was struck,’’ a Grand Rapids police detective wrote in a probable cause affidavit.
A Grand Rapids police tactical team searched a home on Worden near Geneva; McIntosh was located and arrested.
“Evidence of the shooting and burglaries were recovered,’’ according to a probable cause affidavit. “Lorontay McIntosh admitted to driving the stolen 2006 Chevy Tahoe but denied knowledge that it was stolen.’’
He was out on a $5,000 bond in those cases.
Josh Kasnowicz was fuming when he finally got to see his Chevy Tahoe, which had undergone extensive detailing a few days before it was stolen. “I didn’t recognize it,’’ he said.
“And here he is, out on the street terrorizing a lot of people with my family vehicle,’’ Kasnowicz said. “That’s disheartening.’’
Kasnowicz said he will be watching the criminal cases closely.
“This was a guy who had already been detained and charged and he was out? If they don’t lock him away, it’s a broken justice system.’’
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