LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — The Oakland County Prosecutor is contradicting a Sunday statement made by the Office of Sheriff Michael Bouchard over the weekend about the shooting death of an online personality.
Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald issued a statement Tuesday claiming the shooting death of Robert Wayne Lee, 40, was not the result of one of his online sex predator confrontations.
“Based on the information available at this time, there is no evidence that the confrontation on September 29th was a planned meeting, or that it was part of any sting operation,” McDonald said in the statement.
Lee was shot and killed Sept. 29 at about 10:30 p.m. in a restaurant in Pontiac. Oakland County Sheriff officials released a statement Saturday, Sept. 30, claiming “when “[Lee] confronted two men at a table, accusing one of the men of being a pedophile and punching him.”
Lee is a popular social media personality who lured men into meetings by posing online as a 15-year-old girl. Those stings, which he promoted to his 11,000 Facebook followers as “Boopac Shakur”, were not sanctioned by Oakland County law enforcement officials, McDonald said in the statement.
Mr. Lee is known to law enforcement and the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office. He
Press statement by Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald, Oct. 3, 2023
was involved in numerous instances where he posed as an underage person and
identified potential sex offenders. Mr. Lee would arrange to meet with those individuals
and confront them. Mr. Lee would often record and post those interactions and would
sometimes bring the information he had to law enforcement.
Mr. Lee’s conduct has never been sanctioned or encouraged by law enforcement or the
Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office. While identifying potential sex offenders is
commendable, we were concerned that such confrontations would result in violence or
injury.
In addition, Mr. Lee’s methods often impeded law enforcement’s ability to conduct a
proper investigation and gather evidence that would be admissible in court. That meant
that some individuals Mr. Lee identified could not be charged with crimes, or that cases
against them were dismissed. In two instances, Mr. Lee was investigated for and charged
with crimes for destroying property of individuals who were not the target of his “sting”
operations.
Both McDonald and Sheriff Bouchard discouraged citizen sting operations targeting people believed to be connecting with minors for sexual purposes.
“However, when private citizens attempt to enter this realm, they often do not know what constitutes criminal conduct versus disgusting or disturbing conduct,” Bouchard said in the press release. “It is our job to ensure that our prosecutor has cases that meet the criminal threshold and have evidence that is admissible and can help obtain convictions. We also know that when confronted predators can become violent. We have seen them ram our police cars and fight with our deputies.”
