Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 1

Metro final Wednesday On Guard For 165 Years or home delivery call 1-313-222-6500 March 12, 1997 35 cents (50 cents outside 6-county metropolitan area) 13 mm 0 mm. 11 High 42 Low 26 Today's forecast Skies becoming mostly cloudy. Thursday: Rain, possible sleet. High 40. Low 28.

WEATHER IIP Sonics 93 Pistons 80 VV! i -V MARY SCHROEDERDetroit Free Press Charlene McDonald of Hamtramck, one of those inside the bank, recalls the horror, the shouting, an incoherent holdup man, die need to escape. Gun rampage in Detroit leaves 4 dead and 2 hurt Jy- 1 lf A xzi I branch is caught by a security camera: facedown under the gunman eyes. Nicely aging 'Les Miserables' is Detroit-bound The Broadway show that has been described as a masterpiece since its first performance turns 10 years old tonight and will be at the Fisher Theatre in June. THE WAY WE LIVE IE Petition drive on way A citizens group will push to legalize assisted suicide in Michigan. LOCAL NEWS IB For sale For $500,000, you can have a new house, a spectacular view and one of the last fine pieces of Detroit shoreline along the Detroit River.

BUSINESS 1C An Irish feast Chef Jimmy Schmidt has some tips for celebrating St Patrick's Day with a traditional Irish stew. roor? if i Primed for titSe ran Todd Eldredge is taking aim at his second consecutive men's title at the World Figure Skating Championships, which start Sunday in Lausanne, Switzerland. He also knows he 1,, -7 The drama inside the Comerica Bank a managed to find Griffin family BYJACKKRESNAK, BETH KRODEL AND BRIAN MURPHY Free Press Staff Writers In a childhood marked by periods of chaos, perhaps the strangest event in Allen Lane Griffin young life was the day he found his infant sister lying facedown on the floor, her head jammed between her bed and the wall. It was September 23, 1983, and Allen was his 3-month-old sister JoAnn was not breathing. Their, mother, Paulette Griffin, then 26, suffered from schizophrenia.

She could never adequately explain how JoAnn got hurt. Neither could she provide a stable home for Allen, his brother and sisters. It was the documented beginning of 13 years of trouble for Allen Griffin much of it the result of problems within his family. His father, Allen Griffin was killed some time after being released from prison. Like his father, Allen Griffin Jr.

would have run-iris with the law, and he also had marital problems, according to interviews with family members and a review of court Please see GUNMAN, Page 8A Iwavs glass A violent path 010 a.m.: Suspect Allen Griffin 21 leaves his home on Duchess and heads toward Denby High School. El Griffin shoots Eric Skalnek, 23, a police recruit applicant, on Duchess behind Denby High, near the entrance to the school's track. 0 Griffin forces a driver out of a car and drives to the Comerica branch bank on Morang, 1 12 blocks away. BY DAVID CRUMM, BETH KRODEL AND ALISON YOUNG Free Press Staff Writers Looking back, the family of Allen Griffin 21, could see an explosion coming. They feared for his life.

Two weeks ago, he said he wanted to kill himself. But nothing prepared them for the shock and horror on Tuesday morning, when Griffin took a shotgun and carved a path of destruction through his northeast Detroit neighborhood, killing three people and wounding two others until Detroit police killed him. At the height of the drama, he held about a dozen strangers at gunpoint in a Comerica branch several blocks from his home as he screamed incoherent phrases. His rage was explosive. Some of the employees and customers covered their heads.

When he ordered them to recite the Lord's Prayer, they prayed for their lives: "Our Father who art in heaven In retrospect, Griffin appears to have been a deeply troubled young man. He grew up with a schizophrenic mother and a father in prison. He was arrested a half dozen times on charges ranging from burglary to delivering drugs. Recently, he was living with his uncle, Charles Griffin, working at his uncle's car wash. He wanted to end his life, he told his uncle.

But none of that explains the rampage that police and witnesses say Griffin unleashed on his neighborhood before he died in an alley behind the bank. In most murder cases, the killers know their victims. But Griffin killed and wounded strangers without warning, according to police and witness es. "The city has never, in my experience, seen anything like this absolutely never," said Detroit Police Chief Isaiah McKinnon, who has Please see SHOOTINGS, Page 9A INSIDE THE VICTIMS and their stories. Please see page 8A A 23-YEAR-OLD about to begin police training runs into the line of fire.

Page8A Therfs No Foolproof way to secure a public place like a bank. Page 9A Lisa Employees and customers sprawled i wn tKL." James Isom Griffin bursts into the bank, yelling incoherently. Prayer. Three are shot. I Bank tellers behind I Teller line Mm A IB 9 Management area tl Entrance I 1 into the bank, Griffin shoots three employees.

Two Stanley Pijanowski III, 52, ot Bloomfield Township, and James Isom, 25, of Warren. Lisa Griffin, 38, of Warren, Is Injured. Stanley Pijanowski III shvai wi Griffin leaves the bank and takes Stanley Hays, 78, of Detroit, hostage out front. Griffin drags Hays toward an alley and fires at police, then shoots Hays dead. 10:30 a.m.: Eight police officers fire at Griffin, killing him about 20 yards from Hays.

He orders all to lie on the floor, then rw- orders them to A 'j; He orders all to lie 5 on the floor, then orders them to reclte the Lord's 1 recite the Lord's Snrinn (Breton -r 9 i Troester Denby High School rrrr-i lib, Jl Graphic bv usually are referred is Alzheimer's disease. Ross' research is one of several new studies published in today's Journal of the American Medical Association. The issue is devoted to breakthroughs in understanding Alzheimer's and its related diseases, conditions that affect about four million Americans. For years, there were no drugs to relieve the symptoms, and little hope. Families still commonly become exhausted providing medical I 1 i i4' WAfc Anpfld 2C rt- MARTY WESTMAN and HANK SZERLAG with reporting bv PATRICIA CHARGOT Detroit Free Press has 12 more months to reach all his competitive skating goals.

SPORTS ID i Ibortion showdown Supporters of outlawing partial-birth abortions plan to bring the issue to a vote in Congress. NATION WORLD 5A INSIDE Bookmarks 3E Bridge 11D Business 1C Classified Index 7C Comics, Crossword 10D Editorials 10A Feature Page 6E Food IF Horoscope 11D Jumble 6F Movie Guide 2B Names Faces 12D Obituaries 4B Sports ID Television 4E The Way We Live IE Your Turn 6B Volume 166, Number 311 1997 Detroit Free Press Inc. Printed In the United States I Find us on the Web www.freep.com www.auto.com GOP switch: Fund-raising probe will go beyond illegal activities Getting ahead of Alzheimer's New information on drugs, strokes helps slow effects of disease BY ERIC SCHMITT New York Times Washington in an abrupt change of course, the Senate on Tuesday unanimously approved a much broader investigation into White House and congressional campaign fund-raising practices than most Senate Republicans had originally wanted. Under pressure from Democrats and facing rebellious moderate Republicans, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, bowed to demands to expand the inquiry to include "illegal and improper activities" in the 1996 elections. The Senate Rules Committee voted along party lines last week for a plan, brokered by Lott, that would have limited the inquiry's scope to illegal activities.

The change may seem minor. But Tuesday's vote will allow Senate investigators to examine some of the most criticized legal fund-raising practices such as "soft money," unregulated and unlimited contributions. The fund-raising coffees and sleep-overs that President Bill Clinton held at the White House and unrestricted political spending by tax-exempt groups also will be probed. Please see CLINTON, Page 2A care for Alzheimer's patients. And the incidence of dementia is expected to grow as the population ages.

But on Tuesday, Ross and another top researcher talked about new reasons to be hopeful: Two drugs now are believed to strengthen memory skills during early stages of dementia, extending memory for as much as four years. A new mathematical formula based on age, symptoms and other Please see ALZHEIMER'S, Page 7A by Patricia anstett Free Press Medical Writer Family members overlook or fail to seek medical evaluation for Alzheimer's disease and related disorders as much as two-thirds of the time, a leading researcher says. "We call this silent dementia," said Dr. George Webster Ross, a University of Hawaii neurologisL Dementia is a series of related diseases that cause loss of cognitive, or intellectual abilities. The most commonly known and the way to which most.