Bursts of violence leave 7 dead and many more injured in Detroit. The violence got so bad, police went so far as to take employees out from behind their desks and into the frontlines. Details after the jump!
Emma Rabid
A 14-year-old boy was shot and killed Saturday night after police released details about a 24-hour spate of shootings in the city that left six others dead and nine injured.
Detroit Police say the juvenile was shot around 6 p.m. Saturday in the 4600 block of Coplin while he and an 18-year-old boy were playing with a gun that went off. The bullet struck the 14-year-old, killing him.
Police said the suspect is in custody and the weapon has been recovered.
The shooting follows nine others that occurred between 6 a.m. Friday and 6 a.m. Saturday.
At one scene, five people were shot, police said. At another, three people were shot. The remainder of victims were shot at separate locations.
One other victim was in critical condition, one in stable and the remainder in serious condition at area hospitals.
The city was on pace for 350 murders this year, according to an analysis by The Detroit News. In a city that has lost 25 percent of its population since 2000, that could put the year on pace to reach the highest per-capita rates in a decade.
The shootings come as Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee plans to put as many as 50 officers per shift on the streets by taking them off administrative jobs. The city has about 2,800 officers.
Mayor Dave Bing in a statement released by his office on Saturday said the community “must continue to work with us to stop this kind of violence. Every resident deserves to be safe and feel safe in their neighborhood.”
“Reducing violent crime is our number one priority. Chief Godbee and the men and women of the Detroit Police Department are working around the clock to bring these criminals to justice.”
During a town hall meeting on July 27 to discuss the second quarter crime report, Godbee pointed out that most of the homicides and other violent crimes are targeting people who are engaging in risky behavior — including the drug trade,
gang activity or retaliation.
“It is important to note in most instances when citizens are doing the right things and not engaging in risky behaviors, their likelihood of being the victim of one of these types of crimes goes way down,” Godbee said.
In addition to gangs and drugs, violence is erupting from people who too quickly grab a gun during a disagreement.
“It has reached a tipping point because when a 3-year-old child is killed in her house because adults can’t get it together, somebody has to go and get pretty pissed off,” Godbee said during the town hall referring to Aarie Berry, who was killed when bullets tore through the middle-floor of the multi-family house where she live on Canton on July 10. A suspect in her death was arraigned last week.
