Update: According to WXYZ Detroit, two suspects in the incident were arrested Saturday afternoon. They are 17 and 18 years old.
LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — An Oakland County, Michigan man, who had often caught sexual predators by posing online as a 15-year girl, has died from gunshot wounds after approaching and punching someone he suspected to be a pedophile in a Pontiac restaurant.
Robert Wayne Lee, 40, of Pontiac, was in a restaurant near the corner of North Perry Street and MLK Boulevard at about 10:30 p.m. Friday when he confronted two men at a table, accusing one of the men of being a pedophile and punching him, Oakland County Office of the Sheriff said in a news release Saturday.
The man Lee had accused and punched then pulled out a knife, and the other man pulled a gun and shot Lee several times. The two men whom Lee had approached then ran out of the restaurant. Lee was taken to a hospital, where he later died of his injuries. A K-9 search for the two men has been unsuccessful, the office of the sheriff said.
Lee, who was active on social media, has a Facebook page with 11,000 followers and went by the name “Boopac Shakur,” often posed online as a 15-year-old girl. His quest had led to the arrest and criminal charges against several men. He had also mistakenly identified someone as a sexual predator at least once.
Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard cautioned against such civilian crusades, saying well-intentioned people often don’t know the standard of evidence required for convictions and that they also underestimate the potential for violence when confronting a suspected predator. “They [suspected predators] feel trapped and often lash out violently. When we have arrested predators in such circumstances, they have rammed police cars and exhibited other violent behavior in attempts to escape,” Bouchard said.
