DETROIT — A neighbor dispute over a car parked in front of a driveway space sparked a mass shooting early Sunday that left one dead and seven others wounded, police said.
The incident happened between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. Sunday near Coyle and Plymouth on Detroit's northwest side, Detroit Police 2nd Deputy Chief Rudy Harper said.
The suspect, who is in police custody, "shot in the air first then into the home with a second gun," Harper said of the preliminary information from detectives.
The Metro Detroit Post of the Michigan State Police is helping Detroit police investigate the shooting scene and called for a canine to assist with the search.
Detroit police Chief James White has scheduled a 1 p.m. Monday press conference to discuss the shooting.
News of the shooting was upsetting to Alice Parker, who lives near the scene where it took place. Parker said her daughter heard the gunshots and she knows the man who was killed.
Parker said the man used to live in the area, has children and grew up in a kind family.
“He’s a very sweet guy,” she said. “I knew him since he was a little boy.”
Parker declined to share the man's name. Police have not identified him.
The neighborhood around Plymouth Road where Parker grew up is tight-knit, she said. Some neighbors affectionately call themselves the “P-Rock Family.” The community’s close connections make the violence especially sad, she said.
Eugenia Beamon said she and her family heard the gunfire erupt early Sunday morning, though they did not see the scene that was unfolding outside.
As the shots continued, they dropped to the floor, then fled to the basement for safety, she said. Squad cars arrived outside in minutes.
“I’m not good,” Beamon said, sitting on her porch with a friend who visited to comfort her. “I’ll never be good again.”
The people shot Sunday were like family, she said. They were good and respectable young people who deserved the chance to live and raise their children.
Through tears, Beamon said she was frustrated at the senselessness of the shooting.
“This didn’t have to happen,” Beamon said.
Beamon said the man arrested for the crime had argued with neighbors and threatened them with violence before.
She said she has seen police remove weapons from his home and has told community police officers and block club leaders she was concerned about the man’s behavior.
She implored people who have loved ones who have mental illness and threaten violence to intercede.
Other recent mass shootings in Detroit include a May brawl that led to four people being shot; a July 2021 shooting outside an east-side banquet hall that left six wounded; and an April 2021 candlelight vigil in which four were shot.
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