NEWS MEDIA INFORMATION REPORT
SUBJECT OF RELEASE: Felonious Assault
DATE AND TIME: Approximately 6:55 P.M. on Saturday, October 1, 2022
LOCATION: 6000 block of South Vickeryville Road, Bushnell Township
AUTHORITY/CONTACT PERSON: Sheriff Michael Williams
Montcalm County deputies responded to a report of a felonious assault that occurred at approximately 6:55 P.M. in the 6000 block of South Vickeryville Road in Bushnell Township. A Montcalm County deputy and a Carson City Police Department officer arrived at the scene first to find a group of individuals yelling at one another. They were able to immediately identify the suspect using the description initially given to them by Montcalm County Central Dispatch operators and the suspect taken into custody without incident.
The investigation revealed that an argument broke out between a seventeen-year-old female and her eighteen-year-old boyfriend Benjamin C. Hernandez-Cruz. The two lived at the home together. During the argument, Hernandez-Cruz was reported to have assaulted his girlfriend and ordered her from the home. The girlfriend returned with family members to gather her belongings and they were not allowed into the home. During the ensuing argument, Hernandez-Cruz exited an upstairs window and stood on a porch roof with a shotgun in his hand. Hernandez-Cruz was ordering the others to leave and when they did not comply, he fired the shotgun. Although no one was struck by the bullet, the round struck the ground close enough to the girlfriend’s mother, a forty-year-old woman from Carson City, that she was sprayed with dirt.
Hernandez-Cruz was lodged in the County Jail and has been charged with four counts of felonious assault and one count of domestic violence. Hernandez-Cruz remains in custody.
In addition to the Carson City Police Department and Montcalm County Central Dispatch, the Michigan State Police also assisted.
