Eight people, including two children, were shot at a water playground in Michigan on Saturday evening.
Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard announced late Saturday local time that the shooting occurred at the Brooklands Plaza Splash Pad in Rochester Hills, about 45 kilometers from Detroit.
A “shooter situation” ensued, leading police to a nearby home.
There, a 42-year-old suspect was “arrested” by authorities before the shooter committed suicide.
According to local reports, the shooting occurred around 5 p.m. local time (7 a.m. AEST) at the Brooklands Plaza Splash Pad in Rochester Hills – about 45 kilometers from downtown Detroit.
Stephen Huber, a spokesman for the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office, initially confirmed that at least five people had been shot.
This number has now been corrected to eight.
“It appears the individual stopped, got out of a vehicle, approached the water playground and opened fire. Reloaded, opened fire. Reloaded. Walked away. So it appears to have been very random at this point,” Bouchard told reporters, adding that he believes the shooter had “no connection to the victims.”
According to Fox2Detroit, Mr. Bouchard said three of the eight victims were from the same family.
An 8-year-old boy suffered a gunshot wound to the head and is in critical condition, a 4-year-old boy was shot in the thigh and a 39-year-old woman – believed to be the children’s mother – suffered injuries to her abdomen and is in critical condition.
The victims were reportedly taken to several area hospitals with “various injuries.”
Mr Bouchard said the other five victims – all of whom are in a stable condition – included a 39-year-old woman with wounds to her back and arm, a 30-year-old man with a wound to his right leg, a 78-year-old man with a wound to his abdomen, a 37-year-old woman with a wound to her hand and a 40-year-old man with a wound to his right knee.
Authorities reportedly found a pistol and three empty ammunition magazines at the scene. Police say the suspect opened fire “possibly 28 times” from less than 10 meters away.
Rochester Hills Mayor Bryan Barnett said the situation was “heartbreaking.”
“This is a great community and it’s heartbreaking to see something like this happen here.”
Mr Bouchard said authorities were investigating the motive.
“We are trying to talk to this person without getting a response, but again we believe he is being held there,” he said before the suspect took his own life.
“There was a vehicle matching the description of the vehicle that left the scene… We quickly set up a perimeter and officers on the scene apparently heard or saw the person they were trying to communicate with.
The sheriff said the incident was a “punch in the gut” as the community is still recovering from a 2021 shooting at an Oxford high school, just 16 miles from the wading pool, in which four students were killed.
– with the New York Post
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