Was the baseball bat attack on a 47-year-old Detroit man justified, or will it be a case a vigilante justice gone too far?
"I came out trying to stop it, and they wouldn't stop. They kept beating and beating," said Frenchia Dunlap whose 47-year-old son was beaten by one of her neighbors Monday.
But some people in the neighborhood say Dunlap's son had it coming, accusing the ex-con with mental health issues of terrorizing their neighbors.
Even Frenchia Dunlap admits to calling police on her son because she says he continues to recklessly fire his gun in the air.
And then came the attack on Dunlap's son.
"Just had enough and just had to teach him a lesson," said Talicia Wyatt who tells 7 Action News that Dunlap's son went too far Monday afternoon, starting with busting out the windows on their house and their vehicles.
Wyatt said she made repeated calls to 911 for help, and as they were waiting for officers to arrive, Dunlap's son threw a brick at her mother.
Wyatt's mother was able to dodge the brick, but that's when she says her dad went after Dunlap with the bat, beating him in front of the man's eight-year-old son. The child was not injured.
Dunlap's son was released from prison in 2017 with prior convictions for armed robbery and fleeing police, according to state records.
And prior to Monday, Wyatt and her mother say the man flattened their tires, shot down a satellite dish on their house and broken the windows on their home.
Other neighbors tell 7 Action News that Dunlap's son often open fires in the neighborhood.
It's unclear why the man allegedly aims most of his frustration at Wyatt's family. They say the man has gotten mad at them before for giving shoes and food to a homeless woman in the neighborhood that he considers to be his girlfriend.
Frenchia Dunlap says, in prior incidents, by the time police are able to respond to her calls for help, her son is gone. And this time, Dunlap doesn't want him returning to the home she's lived in for over 30 years because she, too, says she has had enough.
Dunlap said her son remains hospitalized for his injuries sustained in the bat beating.
