Detroit police say nine people were shot in two separate incidents on the city’s west side over the weekend.
Both shootings happened just before 2 a.m. on Saturday.
Four people were shot after nearly 100 shots were fired at a location in the 16500 block of Trinity Street where a party was taking place, Detroit Police Chief James White said during a news conference on Monday.
White described a chaotic and violent scene. An officer was involved in a shootout with a suspect upon arrival and had shot the gunman in the leg, and police found eight guns. Among them, two were stolen, one had a switch to make the weapon automatic, and the other was an assault rifle.
And the next day, the house where the shooting took place was “firebombed,” White said.
The details White provided were slim. His department is collecting and processing video evidence and working to identify and interview witnesses.
Now that 93 shell casings have been recovered, “it’s way too early to determine what happened,” White said.
Two of the victims are in critical condition, the other two are in serious condition, White said.
Around the same time, another shooting occurred in the area of West Warren Avenue and West Grand Boulevard, where five people sitting in a car were shot. Everyone is expected to survive, White said.
Police said two gunmen fired into the vehicle with a handgun and a rifle and drove away. The police found about twenty shell casings.
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White said traditionally there is an increase in violence during the summer months. And while violent crime is down in the city overall, White said, “Those are just numbers when you’re talking about five people being shot, and four people being shot at events in our city.”
“You can’t celebrate numbers when you have real people affected by this violence,” White said.
Quincy Smith of Ceasefire Detroit highlighted during Monday’s press conference those most at risk of violence: Black and brown males ages 13 to 17.
“Invade the lives of these young people” was Smith’s message to adults.
“Keep teaching, stay engaged. We need to do more. We’re not doing enough.”
Andrea Sahouri covers criminal justice for the Detroit Free Press. She can be reached at 313-264-0442 or asahouri@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit police: 9 people shot in 2 shootings over the weekend
