James Lawrence Shaheen, 38, contacted police the day after he allegedly struck 18-year-old Gabriella Golden with his 2003 Mini Cooper. According to a police report obtained by local NBC affiliate WDIV, Golden was riding her longboard on the night of Oct. 22, 2024. Surveillance cameras in the area picked up the sound of an audible crash at 11:20 p.m., followed by an image of a Mini Cooper driving through the area.
The report said that Golden was found by someone driving through the neighborhood about five minutes later. She was reportedly in the middle of the road, her face covered in blood.
According to WDIV’s reporting, another driver came through the area and checked on Golden as more people stopped to see what was happening. Witnesses reported seeing Golden’s Adidas sneaker and glass in the road.
When first responders arrived, they reported that Golden was “screaming in pain.” Medical personnel told police that her injuries were critical, including a severe injury to her spine as well as a dislocated shoulder and injuries to her liver, spleen, and carotid artery.
As for the driver of the car that allegedly struck Golden, he was nowhere to be found when officers arrived at the scene. But a search into owners of Mini Coopers in the area revealed Shaheen’s name.
State troopers went to Shaheen’s home about two miles from the crash site at 1:43 a.m. but he wasn’t there — and troopers did not see the Mini Cooper, just a Buick sedan. According to the police report, one of the troopers who made that visit followed up at Shaheen’s residence about an hour later and said the Buick was no longer there.
On the afternoon of Oct. 23, 2024, Shaheen called the police and told them that he believed he had hit someone with his car.
WDIV reported that the cadet who took that call wrote in a written statement that Shaheen “told me that last night he was involved in a crash in which he struck a pedestrian and fled the scene. [Shaheen] told me he fled the scene because he was scared but was calling because he wanted to do the right thing and turn himself in.” The statement also included Shaheen’s admission that he was driving a Mini Cooper at the time of the crash.
According to the report, Shaheen told police that he intended to cooperate with the investigation. WDIV reported that Shaheen called a police chief from another department with whom he had trained at the gym. That chief, who was not named, provided a written statement to Michigan state police.
In that statement, the chief wrote that Shaheen told him “he believed he may have hit someone on a skateboard. [Shaheen] said that he was petting his dog when he crossed the center line and hit the skateboarder. [Shaheen] stated that he had a panic attack and fled the scene. [Shaheen] stated that he wanted to do the right thing now that he had time to process what happened.”
The chief stated that Shaheen’s voice was “shaking” during their phone call.
A Michigan state trooper then went to Shaheen’s home to try and find the Mini Cooper, which Shaheen said was stowed in a “graveyard” behind a barn near the home. When the trooper asked Shaheen if he could have a look at the car, Shaheen said, “Absolutely.”
According the report, a “shaken up” Shaheen and the trooper continued to speak while the latter looked at the car. Shaheen said, “I know 100 percent I should not have left the scene … I thought I did the worst.” He added, “I was, like, ‘OK … assess this like an adult. This is the situation at hand. This is what we need to do,’ so I started taking steps, and, you know, here we are. I didn’t want you guys to think you need to come hunt me down.”
The report stated that Shaheen asked if Golden “was OK.” The trooper told him she was alive, to which Shaheen responded, “Good,” and “Thank you so much.”
When the trooper and a sheriff’s deputy found the Mini Cooper, they observed that there was “obvious damage to the front end, windshield, and roof.” The windshield, according to the report, was “caved in,” with “three long strands of hair” visible. Blood was also observed on various parts of the car.
According to a GoFundMe page started by Golden’s family, she “sustained a paralyzing injury” and was in a medically-induced coma following the crash. WDIV followed up with Golden’s family during her recovery and reported that the teen now uses a wheelchair and is still paralyzed from the waist down. She reportedly still has “deeply embedded shards of glass” in her skin and a piece of metal in her abdomen that doctors feel is too risky to remove.
Shaheen was arraigned on April 14 on one count of failure to stop at the scene of a serious personal injury crash. He was booked and posted $15,000 surety bond on April 22, but it was not clear when he was first taken into custody.
Love true crime? Sign up for our newsletter, The Law&Crime Docket, to get the latest real-life crime stories delivered right to your inbox.
