Monroe County deputies are asking the public for help to find two suspects who rammed a vehicle into a marijuana retailer last weekend.
The suspects also caused a fire inside the business, according to authorities.
Sheriff’s deputies were called at about 1 a.m. Sunday to Pure Cannabis at 15311 South Dixie Highway near Dallas Road in Monroe for a report of a vehicle crash with a building.
Investigators said a caller told dispatchers a vehicle was ramming the store’s front. Witnesses reported seeing at least two people run away from the store, head south, and get into a dark-colored vehicle waiting for them, police said. Shortly after the first call, fire alarms from the business sounded.
Deputies arrived and found a maroon Jeep Cherokee partially inside the store, and water falling from the building’s fire suppression sprinklers, according to officials.
Authorities said a canine unit was summoned and searched the area for the fleeing suspects. They said deputies also collected potential evidence believed to have been dropped by the pair.
Police also collected evidence from inside the store, officials said. Furthermore, detectives determined the vehicle had been reported stolen from Detroit.
Mike Bahoura, an attorney and one of the owners of the Pure Cannabis Outlet in Monroe, said Tuesday that the store has “very sophisticated security, including live monitoring of our 90+ surveillance cameras, security roll-down shutters that cover all of our doors and windows, and a fire suppression system that put this fire out in less than one minute.”
He said the suspect drove their car through the store’s front at about 1:04 a.m. and fled a minute later. Deputies arrived at the business within minutes, the attorney said.
“Our monitoring company called the police immediately as they saw the car begin to back up, even before it crashed through,” Bahoura said.
He said the suspects caused an estimated $75,000 to $100,000 in damage to the business.
The attorney said the incident did not impact the store’s hours of operation on the day it happened.
“We opened for business at 9 a.m. that same day, just like normal,” he said. “We were not shut down for even one minute because of this. If the intent was to shut us down, they failed miserably.”
Bahoura said nothing like Sunday’s break-in had ever happened at the store since it opened in April 2023.
“We have never had any break-ins, robberies, burglaries, etc.,” he said. “Not only at this location, but nothing like this has happened at any of our four retail locations.”
Pure Cannabis also has stores in Chesterfield Township, New Buffalo, and Oxford.
Bahoura said the company plans to install security bollards along the front of the Monroe store to prevent vehicles from crashing into the building in the future.
Anyone with information about the incident should call the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office Detective Bureau at (734) 240-7530. Tips can be submitted anonymously by calling Crime Stoppers of Michigan at 1-800-SPEAK-UP or visiting www.1800speakup.
The incident is among the most recent crimes involving a marijuana retailer in Michigan.
Last month, four Cincinnati men were convicted of murdering the owner of a Pontiac marijuana business in January 2025.
A man accused of robbing a Warren marijuana business and leading police on a car chase through two counties was charged in March 2025. He was sentenced in December to one to 20 years in prison, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections.
In 2024, two men were found guilty of attempted murder in connection with a robbery and shooting at a Warren marijuana dispensary the previous year.
cramirez@detroitnews.com
@CharlesERamirez
