SOUTHFIELD (WWJ) -- The Southfield Police Department has announced its fourth human trafficking bust within the past three months, this time allegedly involving victims moved across state lines.
Police said these crimes were discovered after a domestic disturbance call on Monday at the Quality Inn Hotel on Telegraph Road.
Police said a 21-year-old victim from Louisiana had her car windows broken by 33-year-old Randolph Lewis, a Texas resident.
Following further investigation, it was discovered then that she'd been trafficked for sex by Lewis for the past year, according to Police Chief Elvin Barren.
The woman told police she didn't know she was in Michigan, and said she had been trafficked by Lewis back and forth between Texas and Louisiana over the past year, and that recently stopped in St. Louis and Chicago.
Barren said Lewis was trafficking at least eight to ten other female victims through multiple states at the time of his arrest.
He had three rooms booked at the Quality Inn, which was also an indicator to investigators.
"These victims, some as young as 17 years old, were coerced, threatened and manipulated into a life of sex trafficking," Barren said.
The chief said that, while in custody, Lewis gave himself a head injury by banging his head against the glass wall of his jail cell.
** Editor's note: Video below may be disturbing to some viewers
"You decide to come into Southfield, it's a high probability we're gonna discover your activity and take these type of actions," Barren said at a news conference, as she showed video of Lewis' actions inside his cell.
"That's why he panicked on the video because he understands the seriousness of this offense, and then wants to injure himself to delay or keep himself in a hospital room and not going to prison," Barren said.
Police said Lewis has a lengthy criminal history, including convictions for domestic assault and battery and other violent crimes.
He will be taken to the Oakland County Jail after his hospital visit on a $300,000 cash bond and charges of human trafficking and prostitution.