Minister with food for the homeless ambushed and carjacked on Gratiot

FOX 2 - A St. Clair Shores minister stopped to help what he thought was another driver in trouble. Instead, it was a trap, and the 51-year-old victim was beaten and carjacked.

Derek Hill was out for a midnight snack when he pulled over on Gratiot and saw a car with smoke coming from it.  The suspects were two men and a woman who got away.  Hill was forced out of the van, thrown to the ground, and kicked in the face.

"The side of his ears here you can see is all chewed up," said James Galen, Jr, Hill's attorney. "His face has multiple bruises and contusions, His eyes are black. Bloody nose.  His lip is torn up terribly bad so that they couldn't put stitches in it."

Hill's van "Last Supper Mobile Ministry" was loaded with food to feed the homeless.

That van meant so much.  After going through some tough times, Six years ago Derek found God -and became a minister - to help people who are really in tough times.

"Please return the van, that is all I ask," Hill said. "I'm asking homeless people if they need a blanket. I'm giving myself to them. I'm bringing them off the street, I am finding them shelter, I am bringing them groceries."

 "In a nutshell, they just sucker-punched him, and beat them enough to get them out of the car, and take his car from him," said Chief Ryan Monroe, Roseville police.

"It could happen to you Charlie, it could happen to me if it could happen to him," Galen said. "All he was doing was going out and getting tacos."

Victim Derek Hill.

"(Derek) said something today that brought tears to my eyes, he said 'Jimmy they broke me.' "I said, 'They did not. God's not done with you yet.'"