Franklin Village FBI raid executed on behalf of Los Angeles division

The FBI agents who raided an apartment in Franklin Village on Gaylord Street Thursday morning acted on behalf of the FBI’s Los Angeles division.

L.A. Division Spokesperson Arie Dekofsky confirmed Friday the raid was executed on behalf of the L.A. division for the FBI but involved agents from the Detroit division.

“I can confirm that special agents with the Detroit field office executed a search warrant in Mount Pleasant, Michigan,” Dekofsky said. “The search warrants are under seal, so I am prohibited from commenting further.”

Dekofsky and FBI Detroit Division Media Coordinator Simon Shaykhet said the warrant was listed as sealed, leaving all other information not open for public record until the investigation is complete.

“Search warrants are used to gather information, and since it is still an ongoing investigation, we are limited in what we can release,” Dekofsky said.

It is still unknown why a search was conducted in the apartment, if any arrests were made or why the order came from Los Angeles.

As previously reported by Central Michigan Life, several witnesses heard loud knocking on the door of apartment 4E at Franklin Village, 1333 Gaylord St., before noticing FBI vans outside of the apartment building.

“There were FBI officers down in the parking lot using their walkie-talkies,” Nicole Spencer said. “They kept knocking, and I heard one of them say, ‘We don’t have time for this. Open up,’ so I guess there must have been some kind of exchange, because they got into the apartment.”

The Farmington senior lives next door to the raided apartment but said she did not know the man who lived there and had only seen him on moving day.

“He had a grill on his porch, and he was never out there, plus there was no light that ever came through his door,” Spencer said. “I only saw him once when he was moving in.”

Shortly after Spencer and her boyfriend heard the knocking, they looked outside and saw men with the letters “FBI” on the front of their bulletproof vests, with some sitting in a van.

“We did go out and ask the officer in front of the door what was going on and if everything was OK,” Spencer recalled. “He said, ‘You’re really safe,’ and ‘We can’t say what is going on,’ and ‘It is just an investigation right now.’ We saw a police car leave, but we didn’t see anyone in the back of it.”

Spencer’s boyfriend, Novi senior Colin Bart, said it was just after 9 a.m. when they heard the first knocks.