A 34-year-old West Bloomfield mother is facing a criminal charge for allegedly leaving a loaded gun in her child’s backpack which was brought into a Royal Oak daycare center.
Karen Reid is charged with reckless use of a firearm — a misdemeanor — for the alleged May 14 incident.
According to the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office, Reid handed the daycare employee the backpack when she dropped off her 3-year-old at the childcare facility.
It was supposed to have the child’s snack in it, but when the employee opened the backpack the loaded handgun was found. It’s alleged Reid put the gun in the backpack to carry it to and from her car but failed to remove it before dropping off her child.
“I’m grateful this is a story about a misdemeanor charge instead of a tragedy,” Prosecutor Karen McDonald stated in a news release. “A loaded gun needs to be secured. Failing to do so around small children is absolutely reckless. The employee who found the gun should be commended for quickly securing it and contacting police.”
The charge is punishable by up to 90 days in jail and/or a $500 fine. It can also result in suspension of hunting privileges for up to three years.
The first of three men charged in connection with the killing of an Oakland County sheriff’s deputy in 2024 will spend between five and 20 years in prison after his sentencing in a Detroit courtroom Friday.
Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Charise Anderson ordered Karim Moore, 19, to spend at least five years in prison after he pleaded guilty in March to conducting a criminal enterprise, receiving and concealing a stolen motor vehicle, and felony firearm in connection with Deputy Brad Reckling’s death.
Recking, 30, was killed June 22, 2024 while he and other members of a cross-jurisdictional task force investigated a Chevrolet Equinox stolen from an Oakland County waterpark. Reckling allegedly was shot three times while tailing the car in Detroit, working undercover.
The Wayne County prosecutor’s office charged three people, including Moore, in connection with Reckling’s death. Anderson sentenced Moore to two years for the felony firearm count and between three and 20 years for the criminal enterprise count. Those two sentences will run consecutively, which brings the minimum time Moore will spend in prison to five years. Anderson sentenced Moore to one to five years for the stolen motor vehicle charge.
Prosecutor Matthew Penney said in court he hoped Friday’s sentencing would be the first step in allowing Reckling’s family to “turn the page” in their lives after his killing. He acknowledged they still have a long road ahead of them, with the cases of two other people charged in connection with Reckling’s death still yet to reach resolutions.
“This is just the first step in a much longer process that this poor family has been enduring for the last 11 months,” Penney said.
More than a dozen supporters of Reckling sat on one side of the courtroom, including his widow, Jacqueline. The couple had three small children and a fourth on the way when Reckling died.
Wearing a white dress shirt, bow tie, sneakers and ankle monitor, Moore did not make a statement to the court. He appeared with his defense attorney, Adam Clements, who characterized Moore as someone who has accepted accountability for what he did and has been cooperative in showing up to court. He has not posed an ongoing danger to his community and even found a job, Clements told the court.
“This young man will have an opportunity, when he gets out, to try to turn his life around.”
Clements had requested Moore be sentenced under a law targeted at young defendants that would have made him eligible for release after three years.
“He’s accepted accountability for his actions. He was wrong, and he embraced that,” Clements told The News in an interview after the sentencing.
Reckling’s family did not speak at the sentencing or to reporters afterward.
A separate case against Moore accusing him of resisting arrest has been dismissed.
Deputies escorted him out of the courtroom to begin his sentence. He was not handcuffed.
Ramon DeBose, 18, of Clinton Township is accused of killing Reckling. Marquis Goins, 18, of Detroit, also faces charges as an accessory. Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said DeBose drove the SUV, and Goins and Moore rode as passengers at the time of the shooting.
Judge Shawn Jacque in Detroit’s 36th District Court ordered DeBose in March to stand trial. DeBose faces life in prison if convicted.
From L to R, Defendant Karim Moore, 19, one of the defendants charged in connection with the shooting death of Oakland County Sheriff’s Deputy Brad Reckling, and his attorney Adam Clements listen to Honorable Charise L. Anderson during sentencing hearing at the Wayne County Criminal Justice Center on May 2, 2025, in Detorit, MI. (Clarence Tabb Jr./The Detroit News/TNS)
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