Police arrest 2 in killing of 'Boopac Shakur,' vigilante who lured alleged sex predators
A man who often posed as a minor to expose alleged sexual predators to his tens of thousands of followers online was killed Friday in Michigan in a confrontation with two teenagers who've since been taken into custody, authorities say.
Robert Wayne Lee, who had over 50,000 combined followers across Facebook and Instagram and went by the moniker "Boopac Shakur," confronted two males – ages 17 and 18 – at a restaurant in Pontiac, a city about 20 miles northwest of Detroit, around 10:30 p.m. Friday, according to the Oakland County Sheriff's Office.
Lee, 40, accused one of the teens of being a pedophile and punched him. One teen took out a knife and the other, suspected to be the younger one, shot Lee several times before the pair fled the restaurant, police said.
Lee was taken to a hospital where he later died.
Teens arrested Saturday, charges not yet filed
The two suspects, believed to be from the Pontiac area, were arrested early Saturday afternoon in Pontiac, according to a news release from the Oakland County Sheriff's Office.
Stephen Huber, a spokesperson for the sheriff's office, said Monday the case had been turned over to the prosecutor's office. He told USA TODAY he did not expect charges to be filed Monday in the case.
Huber could not say whether the teens were intending to meet a 15-year-old girl for sexual purposes.
Lee once turned over a sheriff's deputy, leading to arrest
Police have said Lee's running ruse, posing as a 15-year-old girl online, was at times successful, but also resulted in false accusations.
"His one-man crusade has led to the arrest and criminal charges being filed against several men," the sheriff's office said in a news release. "He has also mistakenly identified someone as a sexual predator who was not."
Lee also, however, was once a source who tipped off the sheriff's office about one of its own deputies.
In October 2022, 33-year-old Jared Frederick Salisbury, a deputy in his probationary period, was arrested and arraigned on a felony charge after he allegedly attempted to solicit a person he believed to be a 15-year-old girl but was actually Lee posing as a minor. The case led to Salisbury's firing from the sheriff's office. His case remains open and is in the pre-trial stage, according to Oakland County Circuit Court records.
In a statement following Lee's death, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said confronting a suspected sexual predator has "the potential for violence," adding, "They feel trapped and often lash out violently."
"While we certainly understand his desire to hold child predators accountable, many times well intentioned individuals who engaged in this don’t know the standard of evidence required for convictions and often underestimate the potential for violence," said Bouchard. "When we have arrested predators in such circumstances, they have rammed police cars and exhibited other violent behavior in attempts to escape.”
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: 'Boopac Shakur' shooting suspects arrested in Pontiac
