Detroit woman gives birth, days after fire attack

DETROIT (AP) - May 29, 2012 (WPVI) -- A Detroit woman whose ex-boyfriend allegedly tried to have her killed to prevent her from having his child gave birth to a boy Tuesday, hours before the man and another suspect were due in court on attempted murder charges.

Latonya Bowman gave birth to the boy via an emergency cesarean section, said Louis Galasso, the deputy police commissioner in Warren, the suburb where the attack began early Saturday. He did not know if the C-section was needed because of the attack.

According to police, Bowman went to a drive-in movie with her ex-boyfriend Friday night and drove him home to Warren after midnight. In his garage, a man pointed a gun at Bowman, bound her with duct tape, forced her into her back seat and drove her to a vacant Detroit field, where he doused her in lighter fluid and set her on fire.

"She wiggles out of the back seat and attempts to put the flame out by rolling around on the ground," Galasso said. "She then hears two gunshots, one of which struck her in the back shoulder. She played dead. The suspect fled the scene."

Police believe Bowman's ex-boyfriend orchestrated the attack and followed in another vehicle. Galasso said the ex-boyfriend "made incriminating statements that he did not desire a third child."

Once her attacker had fled, Bowman got into her vehicle, drove to a phone and called her mother.

"The courage and survival instinct that she had was nothing sort of remarkable," Galasso said. The attack was "every adjective associated with heinous and horrific that one can use."

Bowman's ex-boyfriend and the other man were to be arraigned later Tuesday on attempted murder and other charges, Galasso said.

Bowman, 22, has burns to her forehead and torso but is expected to recover, he said.

Get more National/World »

detroit, childbirth, national/world

• Comment Now
• Email
• Print
• Report a typo
•