Todd Sanford, co-owner of The Rocket Night Club in Jackson, killed himself Wednesday after a murder warrant was issued against him, police said.
Sanford, a former state trooper, shot himself with a handgun in a vehicle as a deputy approached about 4:30 p.m., Jackson County Undersheriff Tom Finco said.Earlier in the day, a murder warrant was issued against Sanford in last month's killing of Steven Sampier II in Blackman Township, said Mark Blumer, chief assistant prosecutor for Jackson County.
Blumer said Sanford shot himself when deputies came to arrest him.
Sanford, who would have turned 34 today, was flown by helicopter to the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor, where he was pronounced dead, Finco said. The shooting happened in Henrietta Township near Meridian and Territorial roads in front of Sanford's home. Voter registration records say he lived at 12182 N. Meridian Road near Pleasant Lake.
Patrick Colligan, Sanford's business partner at The Rocket, was booked into Jackson County Jail on Wednesday night on a charge of obstructing police. Finco said Colligan is accused of resisting or obstructing police at the scene of Sanford's shooting. He is not accused of involvement in Sampier's death.
Sampier, 30, a Michigan Department of Corrections sergeant and former Army paratrooper, was killed Nov. 25.
Blackman Township Public Safety Director Mike Jester said Sampier was shot once in the chest and once in the head with a handgun. His remains were found after a fire in his home at 1054 N. Brown St. Police ruled the death a homicide and said the fire was set to conceal the crime.
"We're still in shock," said Shelly Sampier of Midland, the victim's mother. "It's like a bad dream."
Jester said Sampier and Sanford were dating the same woman and Sanford was angry. He did not release the woman's name.
Shelly Sampier said her understanding is the killing was motivated by jealousy over a woman.
"He's a coward to take my son's life like that," she said of Sanford.
Jester said this morning detectives had been looking at Sanford for a while and obtained enough information Wednesday to seek a warrant.
He said police initially did not release a lot of information about the murder case, despite wide-spread rumors, because they still were collecting tips from the public. If specifics are dispersed then "when information comes in you don't know if it is credible or not," Jester said.
He called the case's conclusion "unfortunate."
"Unfortunate for all those involved," he said.
Sanford and Colligan opened The Rocket Night Club in January 2005.
A birthday celebration for Sanford was scheduled for tonight at The Rocket.
Hot Toddy Productions, Sanford's concert promotion company, specialized in bringing such platinum-selling rappers as Naughty By Nature, Vanilla Ice, Tone-Loc, Ying Yang Twins and Chamillionaire to town.
"It was all Todd," said Brandon Armstrong of Lansing, who produced fliers for The Rocket's events. "He could pretty much line up anybody you can think of and get them to this area."
Kevin Carter, publisher of Hood Illustrated, a Lansing hip-hop magazine, said other concert promoters in the area tried to model themselves after Sanford.
"He was someone that people looked up to in promotion," he said. "They used him as a blueprint for how to throw a party."
Cameron Doyle, a Lansing rapper who goes by the name Big Perm, organized more than 40 events at The Rocket in the last year.
"Hot Toddy is known throughout the state as one of the top hip-hop promoters in our region," he said. "It's a major blow. Todd was actually a fan of hip hop. He wanted to see independent artists like myself ... do well. You can't say that about a lot of people that own clubs."
Doyle said other promoters are going to have to "step their game up and help fill that void that Todd's going to leave."
"He takes those connections, those personal relationships he had, with him. None of us have that. ... It's going to be a major issue for Michigan hip hop."
Armstrong said there are going to be mixed feelings about Sanford's death in the local hip-hop community.
"There are people that are going to be mad and people that are going to be sad," he said. "... I would never in a million years guess he would do that."
