Police capture suspect in marijuana facility break-in

HAZEL PARK — A man accused of breaking into a Hazel Park marijuana facility last summer with a group that held a security guard at gunpoint has been captured by Hazel Park police following a high-speed car chase.

The suspect is Salem Hanna Asmar, 26, of Shelby Township. He was arraigned Jan. 28 in Hazel Park 43rd District Court before Magistrate Michael Mitchell on one count of fourth-degree fleeing and eluding — a two-year felony — and one count of driving while license suspended, which is a 93-day misdemeanor.

Two days prior, on Jan. 26, the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office had also authorized a warrant charging Asmar with one count of unlawful imprisonment — a 15-year felony — and one count of breaking and entering — a 10-year felony — for the incident last summer.

It was the next day, Jan. 27, when Hazel Park detectives located Asmar. He was allegedly driving a white Chevy Trax stopped in traffic at Dequindre and Eight Mile roads when officers attempted a traffic stop and he fled. Hazel Park police reportedly pursued Asmar to Van Dyke and Interstate 94, west on I-94 to Lodge Freeway, and then southbound on Interstate-75 to the Springwells neighborhood in Detroit where the suspect vehicle braked hard and collided with a Hazel Park police patrol car.

Asmar was then taken into custody. No injuries were reported, and Michigan State Police took over the crash investigation. A passenger in the vehicle was identified and released.

“Fortunately, this pursuit resulted in the safe apprehension of a subject that disregarded the public’s safety,” said Hazel Park Police Chief William Hamel. “The officers did a great job in making this arrest.”

Investigators believe that Asmar is one of the suspects in a break-in at HP Lab Group — a marijuana processing facility at 21107 John R Road in Hazel Park — on Aug. 8, 2025.

During that incident, several men used a truck to smash through the wall of the facility. When a police officer on patrol near John R and Eight Mile roads observed a cloud of debris drifting from the building north of her location, she approached the scene and the suspects fled in a U-Haul truck with the cargo doors open, leading her on a chase down surface streets to I-94.

The suspect vehicle eventually stopped near Newport Street and Camden Avenue in Detroit, and two suspects were captured after a short foot chase. Roughly 40 stolen THC vape cartridges were recovered.

Additional officers were sent to the marijuana center, where they found a security guard who claimed the suspects had approached him with a gun, pulled him out of his vehicle and disarmed him before taking him hostage.

The guard told police at the time that the suspects had duct taped his hands and mouth and put him in his vehicle a short distance away, but he was able to free himself after the suspects left, returning to the parking lot.

“This crime was more than property crime,” Hamel said at the time. “It jeopardized the lives of the security officers and the public.”

Peter Torrice, the attorney on record for Asmar, did not answer a request for comment by press time.