Deputies tipped to man riding around with a semi-automatic assault rifle

Pontiac – A 20-year-old Pontiac man is facing charges of assault after he was arrested with a loaded semi-automatic AR-15 assault rifle in a truck.

Hilbin Yamil Collazo-Cruz was charged Monday with one count of assault with a dangerous weapon, a felony punishable by up to four years in prison, and possession of a loaded firearm in a vehicle, which carries up to two years in prison.

Pontiac 50th District Judge Cynthia Walker released Collazo-Cruz on personal bond pending a Dec. 10 court appearance, according to a news release from the Oakland County Sheriff's Office.

On Sunday, Oakland County sheriff’s deputies responded to a report of three people driving around in a white pickup truck, possibly armed and threatening to shoot someone in the North Hill Farms apartment complex in Pontiac. The caller described the vehicle as having a logo from a landscaping company.

Deputies stopped a vehicle fitting the description, according to police.

The driver told deputies there was a rifle in the back seat; one of the passengers said the weapon belonged to him, that he had just found it and it was stolen. The rile was an Alex Pro AR-15, loaded with a drum magazine with 45 live .223 caliber rounds. Two additional magazines, containing 19 and 49 rounds of ammunition, were found under the backseat near the rifle.

Both the driver and the passenger were arrested. During an interview, deputies learned the passenger had called the driver for a ride to his mother’s home and carried a large black bag and showed him the rifle.

The driver said he told the passenger to get out but he refused and pointed the rifle into his back and ordered him to drive. The driver said he feared for his life. The driver said he drove away as instructed, going toward patrol cars in the area hoping to get pulled over, according to police. Despite instructions to not stop and to keep driving when the patrol cars activated their lights, the driver told police he pulled over.

Sheriff Michael J. Bouchard said tips from callers to dispatch helped deputies make the arrest. 

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