Mom, neighbor discuss fleeing defendant

GREENVILLE, Mich. (WOOD) - Lorraine Bennett saw the brief standoff police had Wednesday with a man who fled from a Montcalm court. Her house is in the 8000 block of Peck Road in Greenville, right where the police were trying to capture Mark Dwayne McCuaig.

He fled from the courthouse, stole a car, drove to a storage unit in Greenville , got into the motor home he was living in and tried once more to escape. But police stopped him there.

Bennett was in her "house and all of a sudden, I heard all these sirens and I looked out and they were all across the street," she told 24 Hour News 8. "Officers had rifles they were pointing at the building."

She said she locked her doors and then saw McCuaig come "crashing out" of the storage unit. "I could see part of the garage and looked like his muffler and stuff all on the ground, and then he kind of chugged along."

"Once we saw his picture on television, we knew it was him," she said. "And he was kind of an odd duck."

McCuaig's mother told 24 Hour News 8 her son has a history of mental problems and has been committed to a psychological hospital in the past. She was concerned about anyone her son may have hurt, and said she thinks he was trying to kill himself Wednesday.

He was in court for driving with a suspended license. Now he faces 23 felonies, and could spend up to 82 years in prison.

Bennett, for one, is glad he's in jail. "I'm just glad it's over and they caught him, because you don't know if it's drugs, if it's gangs. I wasn't quite sure what was going on."

But McCuaig's mother said her son is a good kid -- he's 46 -- who wouldn't hurt anyone. But he's just messed up. She said she's been praying for him and now maybe he won't be able to hurt himself anymore.

McCuaig will next be in court on March 15.