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Aaron Height (DOC photo)
Aaron Height, 47, who authorities described as an armed career criminal and "urban terrorist," was sentenced Thursday to 25 years in federal prison for shooting and wounding an innocent man in the chest in Detroit after forcing him to kneel on the ground. The dispute was over custom Jordan gym shoes.
The shooting was part of a crime spree committed by Height over a six-week period between late 2022 and early 2023, the Detroit U.S. Attorney's Office said.
Federal authorities alleged that Height’s shooting spree began on Oct. 30, 2022, when he shot into a home, hitting a mother sitting on the couch with her infant grandchildren. She was hit in the right side of her head but was alert and talking, according to an Aug. 3, 2023, court affidavit from an ATF agent.
On Dec. 24 and Dec. 25, 2022, he shot at the house again. He also shot at another house on Dec. 25 of a woman who had purchased crack cocaine from him earlier in the day.
On Dec. 25, that same day, Detroit police arrested him after they found a gun in his car during a traffic stop. The state court granted him bond and ordered him to wear a tether while under house arrest.
Height violated his bond by threatening a witness to the house shooting. After a hearing in state court, he was again released on bond, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
Two days later, he got into an argument over a pair of custom Jordan gym shoes at a home on Lafayette in Detroit and struck a man in the head with a liquor bottle and poured Comet household cleaner onto the victim's head.
He then ordered the man and a female witness to their knees and shot the man in the chest. The man suffered life-threatening and permanent, life-altering injuries but survived, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
"Height was arrested and, inexplicably, given bond again with a tether and house arrest," the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a press release.
The criminal case against him was eventually dismissed by the state. However, federal prosecutors took the case and convicted him on the gym-shoe related shooting for a felon in possession of a firearm. He was not convicted on the house shootings.
Height has an extensive and violent criminal history spanning from 1998 to 2023. He has convictions for felonious assault, assault and/or battery, arson, and unarmed robbery. He also has multiple convictions for property-related crimes and four convictions for drug crimes, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
"This defendant spent decades committing crimes and hurting people, and a state court still set this menace free to terrorize us," said Detroit U.S. Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon Jr. "But thanks to the hard work of Detroit police, the ATF, and my office, this man will spend the next 25 years in federal prison."
James Dier, head of the Detroit ATF, said in a statement:
“Height was an urban terrorist who freely roamed the streets of Detroit and preyed upon our community members. He habitually harmed Detroit residents with senseless acts of gun violence—firing into homes, ambushing residents, torturing victims, and nearly killing a man."
