After a fun night at a beach club, four women accepted a ride home from two men. After getting in the car, however, the females realized that accepting the offer was a big mistake. Sadly, things quickly went from bad to worse after they asked the guys to let them out.
After enjoying a night out at Seacrets in Ocean City, Maryland, four women were approached by two men — identified as 33-year-old Andre Blakeney of Waldorf, Maryland, and 27-year-old Finis Miles of Clinton, Maryland. The women were reportedly waiting on an Uber to pick them up from the beach club when the men struck up a conversation and offered the ladies a ride home.
Against their better judgment, the group of women agreed to accept the 6-mile ride from the club to the beach house they were staying in, just across the state line in Fenwick Island, Delaware. Very quickly, however, the women say they began to feel uncomfortable after getting in the car and asked to get out of the vehicle before reaching their destination. That’s when things went from bad to worse.
“A discussion about paying for the ride ensued, and one of the victims paid the driver $35,” Master Corporal Gary Fournier of the Delaware State Police said. Sadly, things were far from over, however, as the women began to fear they might be followed by the men. So, instead of heading directly to their beach house, “the four women then went to an undisclosed location,” according to Fournier.
The women waited until they felt it was safe to go into their house, but soon after arriving home, they realized their prior fears were completely warranted when “they heard someone talking outside and saw the male passenger from the vehicle walking up to the front door,” Fournier explained. “Soon after, they heard some type of banging on the side of the house by an unknown object,” he added.
Unfortunately for the four women, it wasn’t banging that they heard. It was gunshots. In fact, authorities would later determine that the suspects shot at the residence at least six times, but that’s not all. After following the unnamed women home and shooting at the house, Andre Blakeney and Finis Miles also stand accused of setting a Jeep on the property ablaze, authorities said.
Thankfully, the women were able to immediately phone the authorities to report the suspicious activity taking place outside the home. When a Fenwick Island police officer arrived, he discovered the Jeep Wrangler that had reportedly been set on fire. After the officer and women put out the blaze, they noticed the home’s front window was shattered and that there were bullet holes in the house’s siding, The Blaze reported.
After discovering the Fenwick Island home was riddled with gunshots, authorities also found six of what they believed to be handgun casings littered in the roadway outside of the home on West Atlantic Street just off of Coastal Highway. Although the suspects were nowhere to be found at that point, they wouldn’t get far.
The suspects fled, but the Fenwick Island Police officer, who arrived at the scene after the 911 call, was able to provide a description of their black Toyota Tundra, The Cape Gazette reported. Andre Blakeney and Finis Miles were later caught by Ocean City Police, who located the vehicle with them inside. They were arrested and held by OCPD until they could be extradited from Maryland to face criminal charges in Delaware for second-degree arson and second-degree conspiracy.
“Both will be charged by Delaware State Police with 4 counts of reckless endangerment, criminal mischief, conspiracy, and criminal trespass,” WRDE reported, adding, “They also face arson and conspiracy charges from the Delaware State Fire Marshal’s Office.”
Although none of the victims were injured, they are undoubtedly lucky to be alive. “Anybody could’ve been hurt. It wasn’t just one gunshot, it was several,” an unidentified neighbor told WBOC-TV, saying that she couldn’t believe no one was hurt during the early morning shooting. “It’s upsetting and scary. A lot of us have bedrooms right on the street, in the forward part of the house. Anyone could’ve been hurt.”
Indeed, it’s a miracle that no one was hurt, but let this be a lesson to others: Do not accept a ride from people you do not know. You never know what their intentions may be or what they will do if they don’t get their way. Thankfully, it seems these ladies had a moment of intuition that struck just in time or things may have ended much differently. We shudder to think what could have happened had they allowed these men to take them home and welcomed them inside.
