Get our issue, highlights, free stuff and more!  

  • About MT
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • STORE
  • RSS Feeds

Detroit Metro Times home page.

  • NEWS
  • ARTS
  • CULTURE
  • MUSIC
  • SCREENS
  • FOOD+DRINK
  • CALENDAR
  • BLOGS
  • BEST OF
  • FREE STUFF
  • CLASSIFIEDS
  • MMJ
  • ARCHIVES
  • BLOWOUT
  • REFER LOCAL
News+Views Cover Stories News Hits Politics & Prejudices Stir It Up Higher Ground
Music Blahg News Blawg The B-Roll Reckless Eyeballing The Subterraneans
Arts Lit Up
Music Album Reviews Browse Local Music Music Events Add Your Act
Stories+Reviews Film Reviews Idiot Boxing Cheat Code
Food Stories Restaurant Reviews Find a Restaurant Find a Club Happy Hours Add a Restaurant Add a Club
Search Events Add an Event
Best of Detroit 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2004 2003 Best of Map
EVENT PHOTOS MT ON FACEBOOK MT ON TWITTER MT ON FLICKR
Classifieds Home Place an Ad Dating Real Estate Jobby Jobster
Culture Savage Love Motor City Cribs & Rides
Search Articles Search Authors Search Issues Latest Comments
BLOWOUT HOME HISTORY PRESS PHOTOS BLOWOUT BLOG
MEDICAL MARIJUANA HOME

Calendar

Restaurants

Clubs

  • Latest Comments
  • Popular Threads
  • Most Read
Most Read
  • The devil inside The people who attend this church swear they see miracles. Who's to argue? | 5/2/2012
  • The Whole truth That $5 million spent luring Whole Foods drives city’s independent grocers crazy | 5/16/2012
  • Your College Bucket List The must-do highlights of higher learning | 8/24/2011
  • Battleship Sinking ship — Plus, Rihanna plays a stoic weapons specialist! | 5/18/2012
  • Nutritional Value - Readers' Choice Our readers pick the best places to scarf, nosh, tipple and dine | 4/27/2011
  • Malcolm X — still controversial A recent biography stirs debate as the iconic black nationalist is honored in Detroit | 5/16/2012
  • Food Stuff The new old R. Hirt Jr., flower day at Eastern Market and more | 5/16/2012

Print Email

City Slang

A bullet in the head

Singer-songwriter Manton's close call

Photo: , License: N/A

Mike Anton’s wound. He asks one question over and over: Why?


By Brett Callwood

Published: July 27, 2011

It's 1 a.m. on Thursday, June 30, at Eight Mile and I-75, almost on the border of Hazel Park and Detroit. Mike Anton, aka Manton, singer and guitarist with folk-ish rock trio the Mantons, is in his basement messing around on his computer when he hears four distinct knocks on his front door. As a musician, Manton often gets visitors at odd hours, so this, in itself, isn't particularly unusual.

He runs upstairs and opens the main front door, though not the glass storm door in front of it, and looks out into the darkness, seeing nothing. He thinks that he's been ding-dong-ditched until he hears a loud boom and feels the pain. A bullet has gone through the glass and into his face. It has entered via his left cheek and has shattered his jaw, where it lies embedded.

Yep, Mike Anton has been shot in the fucking face.

Just two weeks later, Manton is at home talking to City Slang with more ease than his recent experience should allow. His jaw is wired, but he's making a fast and remarkable recovery. He knows he's lucky. 

"I could have died or gotten brain damage," Manton says. "My jaw got shattered and separated — the lower part. The bullet was lodged in there. I'd never been hit by a gun before. I didn't know what was going on. I backed off and I thought I'd been hit by a rocket. It was really hot and it hurt. Obviously something's wrong. I go into the bathroom to see what it is, and by that time blood's just rushing out of my face. There's blood all over the place. I thought I was gonna die. It's insane. I ran downstairs looking for my phone, because I only have this cordless phone that lies around my house and I don't know where it is half the time. I found it upstairs and called 911. I never lost consciousness or went into medical shock. They came in a minute or two. The cops were everywhere. They put me on a gurney thing and took me off to the hospital. I was there for about five days. Lucky for me, because the longer I was in, the longer it costs. I was available to recover quickly."

At the hospital, Manton was in the right hands, but he certainly wasn't out of the woods.

"They have rules in case of spine injuries," Manton said. "They had to strap my head to a board. I'm going, 'If you do that I'll choke on my blood because I'm bleeding in my mouth.' It was a bit of an argument. They decided to put me on an angle. In the trauma room, they did the same thing and laid me on my back, and I started choking on blood. I stuck my hand in my mouth and pulled out what I thought was a tooth, but I think it was a piece of my jaw, a little white piece of bone. They had me wash my mouth with saline and clean the outside with saline solution, and that was it. No stitching. They put me in the intensive care unit to wait for the right surgeon to show up and put me back together."

Unfortunately, so far, police haven't been able to identity a shooter. (Hazel Park Police didn't respond to City Slang's requests for comment.)

1 2 3 Next Page

> Email Brett Callwood

We welcome user discussion on our site, under the following guidelines:

To comment you must first create a profile and sign-in with a verified DISQUS account or social network ID. Sign up here.

Comments in violation of the rules will be denied, and repeat violators will be banned. Please help police the community by flagging offensive comments for our moderators to review. By posting a comment, you agree to our full terms and conditions. Click here to read terms and conditions.
comments powered by Disqus


News

News+Views

Politics & Prejudices

News Hits

Stir It Up

Higher Ground

Comics

Blogs

Music Blahg

News Blawg

Reckless Eyeballing

The B-Roll

Blowout Blog

Best of Detroit

Best of Detroit

Best of Detroit 2010

Best of Map

Music

Music Homepage

Album Reviews

Add Music Event

Search Music Events

Arts

Arts Homepage

Book Reviews

Culture

Culture Homepage

Savage Love

Motor City Cribs & Rides

Screens

Screens Homepage

Film Reviews

Idiot Boxing

Events

Calendar

Search Calendar Events

Enter Calendar Event

Food

Food Homepage

Find a Restaurant

Clubs

Find a Club

Web

MT Newsletter

MT@Facebook

MT@MySpace

MT@Flickr

MT@Twitter

MT@Youtube

Archives

Search Archives

Search Authors

Search Issues

Latest Comments

Classified

Classified Home

Place Ad

Jobs

Services

Stuff For Sale

Massage

Personals

Adult

Automotive

Cars, Trucks+More

Services

Real Estate

Real Estate

For Rent

Roommates

Contact Us

About us

Staff Directory

Advertise

National Advertising

Work Here

Metro Times Stuff

Win Free Stuff

Velvet Rope Photos

Event Photos

RSS Feed

 Full Feed

© 2012 Metro Times