Detroit police agencies have set up a task force to respond to at least 16 random roadway shootings in Oakland, Livingston and Ingham counties over the past three days.
Police are asking citizens to report any suspicious activity they see, even if it seems insignificant.
Police do not believe the shootings have involved a sniper, but someone who is shooting randomly out of the driver’s side of oncoming vehicles. Many of the motorists reported that a gunman fired out of the driver’s side window of an oncoming car. The most detailed report available is from a shooting incident that occurred on Maple Road near Best Road about 7:05 p.m. Tuesday. A female driver reported noticing a dark-colored Ford Mustang with dark racing stripes. Her cellphone rang, and when she looked down, she heard a loud ‘pop’ that she though might be a blown tire. When there was no loss of control of her vehicle, she assumed her vehicle might have backfired. The ‘pop’ was loud enough to cause her ears to ring. The next day, when the woman heard reports of other shootings, she checked her vehicle and found a bullet hole in the front between the bumper and the tire.
Other witness reports have included a dark-colored sports car with blue-tinted headlamp covers, and a black 4-door Chevrolet Cavalier with a dark-haired male driver — a confirmed shooting reported at 6:40 p.m. Thursday in Ingham County.
Multiple 9-1-1 calls were received Thursday about 2:15 p.m. from drivers that were traveling northbound on Wixom Road between Charms Road and Pontiac Trail. The multiple calls — received in a span of two to three minutes — reported shots fired from an oncoming vehicle.
A vehicle was also struck a short time later while westbound on Interstate 96 between Pinckney Road and M-59 in Livingston County about 2:40 p.m.
The shootings appear to have started at 7:40 a.m. Tuesday on Interstate 96 at Milford Road in Lyon Township. In one case a bullet entered the driver’s side door and lodged in the inside passenger door. Another man heard a bullet whiz by his head when he was taking out the garbage near North Wixom Road and Loon Lake Road.
A Ford Edge was also struck near Frimo and Pontiac Trail in Wixom.
Five shootings in Ingham County were all reported on M-52 from Lovejoy Road to I-96.
Livingston County Sheriff’s office has not provided details.
Citizens with information on these shootings is urged to call the Oakland County crime tip line at 1-800-SPEAK-UP or Wixom Police Department Detective Bureau or at 248-624-6114.
View Michigan Oct 2012 Shootings in a larger map
View Michigan Oct 2012 Shootings in a larger map
View Michigan Oct 2012 Shootings in a larger map
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The Beltway sniper attacks that killed 10 people and injured three others occurred 10 years ago this month. The Beltway sniper attacks occurred in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia during three weeks in October 2002. Ten people were killed and three other victims were critically injured in multiple locations throughout the Washington Metropolitan Area and along Interstate 95 in Virginia. Police were initially focused on a white van — believed to be the offenders’ vehicle.
John Allen Muhammad, and a minor, Lee Boyd Malvo, were found sleeping in their car, a blue 1990 Chevrolet Caprice, at a rest stop off of Interstate 70 near Myersville, Maryland on Ocober 24, 2002. The Caprice had been stopped previously in at least two incidents — a traffic violation (October 3, 2002) and a suspicious vehicle incident (October 8, 2002). Police, who responded to a call for a man sleeping in a blue Caprice, became aware that the driver’s license (from Washington state) did not match the vehicle tags (from New Jersey). Unfortunately, they released the two subjects in the Caprice without connecting a previous witness report that a blue Caprice was seen in the area of a previous shooting on October 3, 2002. The blue Chevrolet Caprice wasn’t considered significant until after follow-up, when it was realized by police that the Caprice incident with the unmatched driver’s license and tags could have been the same blue Caprice that was reported leaving the scene of one of four shootings on October 3, 2002 (also amazingly two hours after the traffic stop for the traffic violation). Muhammad and Malvo were arrested on federal weapons charges after they were surrounded by Maryland State Police and other law agencies. A Bushmaster .223-caliber weapon and bipod were found in a bag in Muhammad’s car. Ballistics tests later conclusively linked the seized rifle to 11 of the 14 shootings, including one in which no one was injured. The trunk of the Chevrolet Caprice was used as a mobile sniper’s nest.
Muhammad was sentenced to death in September 2003. One month later, Boyd Malvo was sentenced to six consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. On November 10, 2009, Muhammad was executed by lethal injection at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, Virginia.