The director of Wayne County, Michigan’s parks division, Alicia Bradford, was suspended without pay after the Oakland County Prosecutor’s office charged her and her husband, Larry Bradford, with assault with a dangerous weapon and felony firearm. The charges stem from a gas station brawl involving Bradford’s husband just after midnight on New Year’s Day over a can of Mountain Dew.
Larry and Alicia Bradford kicked off 2025 with a visit to the BP gas station in Farmington Hills, Michigan, shortly after midnight on New Year’s Day, proving that Times Square wasn’t the only place the ball would drop that evening. Surveillance video shows Larry Bradford at the counter inside the station’s convenience store trying to buy a can of Mountain Dew but protesting over being charged tax on groceries when, in fact, it was the state-mandated 10-cent bottle deposit fee the clerk was charging.
Overhearing Bradford’s argument with the clerk, the only other customer in the store, waiting in line behind him, decided to chime in, pointing out that the clerk was correct and that he had the “proof right there on the receipt.”
Bradford, however, having his feet firmly planted in the “no tax on groceries” argument, responds to the customer, “Quit saying that, man,” followed up with, “It ain’t none of your business.”
The customer, frustrated by Bradford’s lack of comprehension and likely wanting to pay for his items and move on with his evening, responded by telling him, “Well then, get the f**k out, man.”
The situation escalates as Bradford raises his voice, asking, “Who the f**k is you talking to?” prompting the customer to return an amplified “You!” With fists clenched at his side.
“Larry then engages towards and pushes (the customer) in his throat with his left hand twice … A physical struggle ensued. They are both seen pushing and pulling each other into merchandise racks, knocking various products onto the floor as they struggle,” wrote a Farmington Hills police officer in his report.
In the surveillance video, Bradford is seen using the can of Mountain Dew to strike the customer as he thrashes him back and forth, knocking over displays and merchandise in the store while stripping the customer of his shirt by pulling it over his head.
At this point, Larry heads to the door, saying, “Let me get my pistol,” and is shoved out by the customer, who turns back to the clerk, apologizing for the mess. That’s when Larry can be heard outside yelling three times, “Give me my pistol!” presumably speaking to his wife as the customer remained inside rummaging through the mess for his glasses, apologizing again to the clerk who was on the phone with authorities, and asking if he should wait there.
Several moments later, Larry returns to the convenience store, pointing a 9mm handgun at the customer while instructing him to get on his knees and apologize. The customer complies, getting down on his knees with his hands up. As he apologizes, Larry strikes him in the head while holding him at gunpoint. Understandably in fear, the customer remains apologetic while Larry tells him, “I should kill you. I should f*****g blow your f*****g brains out.”
Moments later, Alicia Bradford is seen entering the store and pointing her own 9mm handgun at the customer, demanding to know what happened. The customer responds by calmly telling her he is standing up as Alicia extends the pistol and tells him, “No, you gonna stay down there.”
In addition to the store clerk, Alicia Bradford called the Farmington Hills police. However, she found herself and her husband under arrest when authorities arrived on the scene. Apparently, initiating a physical confrontation followed by making the victim get on his knees and apologize at gunpoint is against the law. Who knew?
After the Oakland County prosecutor charged the couple with assault with a dangerous weapon and felony firearm, Wayne County Executive Warren Evans suspended Bradford from her $146,000 per year position without pay, prompting me to repeat that the incident unfolded over a 10-cent state-mandated bottle deposit fee.
Chair of the Wayne County Commission, Alisha Bell, seemed surprised to learn about the charges, even though Bradford was suspended for 15 days in 2019 for granting more than $10,000 in county contracts to her stepdaughter.
“This is very uncharacteristic of the Alicia I know … She’s always been very professional and a hard worker in our parks department,” said Bell.
Uh-huh. Sure…
You can’t make this up, ladies and gentlemen. The video in its entirety is online, and I anxiously await seeing what, if any, defense for their actions the Bradfords try to present. The unchecked feeling of entitlement displayed by these two is sickening and will only worsen if they are not properly convicted and sentenced. Of course, if they aren’t, the people of Michigan will know a little more about corruption in their state, and Larry will never learn how to properly do the dew. Among all that’s offensive in this story, I’d like to add that the can of Mountain Dew was $1.99 before the 10-cent bottle deposit fee. $1.99! That should be a crime as well.
Sure looks like unbridled entitlement mentality to me.
How do I get a gig like that–county Parks director for $146,000 per year? (I definitely chose the wrong career field and small business activity.)
That 146K is a crime in itself. Is that called reparations?
Civil service upper management can get a bit wild with salaries……. especially when one considers the workload involved. Mostly a blue state problem and why I absolutely insist on aptitude tests to ensure merit and fitness with the papermill degrees floating around lately.
Sounds like an alcohol related incident.
Another example of what you get when you hire under DEI policies.
A certain segment of the population, encouraged by the Powers the Be to see themselves as victims, flexes their new found entitlement over the smallest issue.
Why I live where I live.
Just another day in America. Move along … nothing to see here.
“The director of Wayne County, Michigan’s parks division, Alicia Bradford, was suspended without pay after the Oakland County Prosecutor’s office charged her and her husband, Larry Bradford, with assault with a dangerous weapon and felony firearm.”
Good. They both needed to be charged, but now lets see if they get prosecuted AND sentenced properly.
” ‘This is very uncharacteristic of the Alicia I know … She’s always been very professional and a hard worker in our parks department,’ said Bell.”
No, it isn’t uncharacteristic. She either had Bell fooled or Bell is a fool. One with this amount of corrupted entitlement thought process – its their base underlying characteristic, always there ready to come out and if you watch them you will see hints of it peeking out almost continuously always ready to erupt into full blown stupid and violence.
Something about displacing ones body from a certain region of the city without the ability to displacing the certain region of the city from ones body.
Seems like this is the sort of “toxic masculinity” that should be front and center rather than the “you look nice today” variety that gets so much attention. Doing so would effectively shut down the music industry as we know it and we can’t have that.
And even if it were tax, isn’t that normally proper? While groceries are not generally taxed, sodas are not normally considered groceries, and are taxed the normal retail rate. That’s how it is in Illannoy anyway.
Generally no tax on the soda but would have the bottle or can deposit for most of the Northeast.
if you place empty cases of illinois bar bottles on the picnic tables near the road in michiana there is no end to the skid marks, disappointment and stinkeye directed towards your party. fun for some.
in queretero three empty six packs equals one full one. the eight year old (dad’s on siesta) making change from the shoebox clued us in.
In Michigan, groceries are only taxed if they are prepared on site.
For example, a bottle of soda (“pop” in Michigan) is not taxed. But a fountain cup of soda IS taxed.
A sealed pizza pocket that came on a truck and was just placed into a cooler would not be taxed, even if you were to microwave it before leaving the store. But a sandwich made by the staff at the store, then put in a cooler or warmer, WOULD be taxed.
They’ve had the bottle return deposit law since I was in high school. All that has ever done is raise the price of goods in Michigan. Plus, the law is not evenly enforced. For example, you’d pay 10 cents on a bottle of soda or beer, but nothing on a bottle of juice or a bottle of wine.
Michigan is a beautiful state, but it is totally mental.
I’m willing to bet an awful lot of money that both of the Bradfords are life long Democrats and firmly in the camp of Gretchen Whitmer. Any takers?
Wayne County, Farmington, and Oakland County, that’s all in the vicinity of Detroit. So there’s your answer.
the can of Mountain Dew was $1.99
This is the real story (so is her salary). I’m old enough to remember when you could get a can of Mtn Dew for 50 cents all day long and you didn’t go into “public service” if you wanted to make good money.
I barely remember 25 cents for soda but mostly 50 and civil service (especially federal) outpaced a lot of private sector jobs at least as far back as 07.
If I had to, I could probably hypothesize how those two things we noticed are connected to some people being violently triggered.
Hey Safe, I remember this:
You’d lift the hinged cover on the popmachine, slide the bottle of your choice to the far end of the machine and to the end of a slot / dispensing gate, deposit your DIME, lift your bottle up out of the machine, open said bottle on the opener / cap catching bin, and enjoy. Oh, and be sure to keep the bottle to utiize the built-in 5 cent deposit for next time.
Hey Peanut butter, I bet you also remember trading in that nickel at the grocery on a dozen fresh dinosaur eggs, right ?
Bwaa haa haa !!!!
callin’ me a boomer?
there ya go. those machines were cool. the local firehouse had theirs set up for a nickel, and would tolerate local kids taking advantage. the milk jug charged ten cents if you drank it there, twelve to go.
and empty quarts were worth a nickle. pullin’ a radio flyer and ringin’ doorbells was a vocation.
banana split candies were two for one cent. they weren’t very good, but you got two.
I remember a 6 oz bottle of Coke for 10 cents from the old water box machines.
Charged is one thing. Get back to us after they are convicted and doing time.
I doubt they will be convicted. The entire metro Detroit area is wracked with corruption in government. From Novi to Downriver. From Romulus to Macomb County.
It’s not going to change because the people of this most populated part of Michigan don’t think they deserve any better than what they have.
When they change their minds, look out. But until then, broke and corrupt is their future, while the time of making bombers, trains, and tanks together in the same factory at Willow Run is just an 80 year old folk story about giants from another time.
Look at the first picture and the expression on her face, all self satisfied and full of herself. Put her in prison. The sisters will take care of her business.