Midnight confrontation ends in violence
A Plainwell man who is a registered sex offender said a group of five or six young people showed up at his home in the middle of the night on Sunday, confronted him about his criminal past, and then punched him in the head.
The man, who is in his 50s, told WOOD NewsNation that he and his wife heard banging on their garage door around 12 a.m. When he opened it, he said he found a group of youths in hooded sweatshirts standing in front of him.
"I heard the rattle of the garage door and then the banging, and thought, 'What in the world's going on here?' So, then I opened up the garage door … and there were all the kids standing side by side of each other."
A neighbor's doorbell camera captured footage of the encounter, according to both WOOD and the Daily Mail.
'People on the registry need to be dead'
The man said the group began asking him personal questions, including his first name. He said he answered honestly, noting that one member of the group was recording the interaction on a cell phone.
He told the youths about his conviction, which he said occurred more than 30 years ago in another state. According to the Michigan Sex Offender Registry, he pleaded guilty in 1991 to first degree sexual assault of a child. He was sentenced to 120 days in jail and placed on the registry for life.
"I was 19 years old and being very, very stupid and selfish and did something wrong. I'm not afraid to open up about what I have done, and that includes employers. I admit my wrongdoings."
The man said the group did not accept his explanation. One of the youths told him that people on the sex offender registry "need to be dead," according to both WOOD and the Daily Mail.
His wife told him to go inside, he said. That is when one of the youths struck him.
"I turned my head to look at the kids on the right, [and] the kid on the left … blindsided me with a hit to the head with a fist. I could feel the, you know, the knuckles on the back of my head, right here," he said, pointing to an area behind his ear.
The youths fled immediately after the punch, he said.
Concussion diagnosis, state police investigation
An emergency room doctor diagnosed the man with a concussion, according to WOOD.
Michigan State Police confirmed they are investigating the alleged assault. The agency said it has received no additional reports of similar attacks so far and is monitoring the situation.
Anyone with information about the incident is urged to contact state police or a local police agency, according to WOOD.
A growing national trend
The alleged attack in Plainwell comes amid a broader national trend of online vigilante confrontations with registered sex offenders. Some groups calling themselves "pedophile hunters" conduct stings, post confrontation videos on social media, and report suspects to police.
A New York Times investigation in 2025 found 170 violent attacks posted online between 2023 and March 2025, according to WOOD. WOOD reported that it did not find published data showing an increase in such attacks.
The Plainwell man said he reached out to the media because he feared for the safety of other registered sex offenders in the area who might not know about the threat.
"The other sex offenders that live in the area that don't know [about what happened] could get attacked," he said.
"I thought, 'You know what? I'm gonna reach out to you guys because … if I don't do something, [what if] somebody else loses their life because I didn't take action?'"