In today's paper, no mention of a type of gun.
http://www.freep.com/news/locway/daycare29e_20040929.htm
Gunman storms day care; girl killed
Detroit police say shooting was not random, but have no motive
September 29, 2004
BY BEN SCHMITT
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
KATHLEEN GALLIGAN/DFP
A Detroit police officer stands guard in front of the home in Detroit where a 3-year-old child was killed and two adults were seriously injured by a gunman who came to the house Tuesday. A 7-month old also was hurt.
A 3-year-old girl was killed and three others were wounded when a gunman barged into a northwest Detroit home day care center and opened fire Tuesday.
Day care owner Annette Rice, one of the wounded, staggered across the living room after being shot and collapsed.
Hearing the shots, a neighbor, Nancy Kelly, called 911, ran across the street to the center and peered inside. She saw Rice, who lived in the house, covered in blood, trying to hold herself up.
As she called for help, 3-year-old Stephanie Belue lay dying in a back bedroom of the single-story home.
"That's as far as I could go," Kelly recalled Tuesday, standing across the street from the home as police investigated. "It made me sick to my stomach. It's very upsetting."
Rice, who owned and ran the day care center on the 19300 block of Woodbine, near Telegraph and 7 Mile Road, remained in critical condition Tuesday night at Sinai-Grace Hospital. Her niece, Sherita Griggs, 22, also is in critical, but stable condition. She was shot in the jaw, stomach and arm.
"She's good right now. She's doing great," said Emmanuel Griggs, Sherita Griggs' brother-in-law.
Rice, 41, and Griggs suffered multiple gunshot wounds and underwent surgery. Stephanie died at 1:05 p.m. at Children's Hospital of Michigan. She was shot in the head.
Griggs' 4-month-old son, Amari, who was dropped during the shootings, was treated for a head injury and was in serious condition at Children's Hospital on Tuesday night.
Emmanuel Griggs, Amari's uncle, said Amari was doing well Tuesday night.
Seven people were at Rice's home shortly before 10 a.m. when a man, described as 6 feet tall and in his 20s, knocked on the door, police said. An occupant of the home answered.
"Some words were exchanged, and he entered into the house," Detroit Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings said. "And he fired shots.
"At the present time, it appears as though this was not random, but we don't have any specific information right now. We're following up on everything we have."
Two other children and a 20-year-old man, who told police he was asleep in the basement, were not injured. The children still were strapped in their car seats, which sat in the living room, police said.
Kelly, 54, said she heard, "bang, bang, bang," and at first looked out her rear window, but didn't see anything. When she turned to her front window, she saw a man leap off of Rice's porch and run south on Woodbine.
An elderly relative, who sometimes helps out at the center, had just arrived at the home and screamed for Kelly to call for help.
When Kelly opened the door to the home, Rice "was staggering around," Kelly said. "She wasn't talking. It looked like her whole face was shot off."
Soon, other neighbors and police arrived, and ambulances rushed victims to the hospital.
"I think it's disgusting," Kelly said. "How could someone do this?"
Detroit and Michigan state police scoured the area Tuesday afternoon with police dogs, but the search of the area about 3 miles around the shooting scene turned up nothing.
One tip led officers armed with rifles in and out of backyards on Vaughan Street, near 6 Mile Road, around 1 p.m., but they found nothing. Police don't have a motive for the shooting, but continued to search for a suspect and question the 20-year-old relative who told them he was asleep in the home at the time of the shootings.
"They asked us to stay in our house while they canvassed in the neighborhood," said Eva Jackson, who lives on Vaughan and was asked by officers if anyone lived in a boarded-up home next door to Rice.
Back at Rice's home, Felicia Moore, who described herself as a family friend, said she can't fathom the killing.
"For somebody to be able to go into a house, literally, with a gun, and just shoot up innocent children, it's not right," Moore said.
State records show Rice ran a licensed day care in her home for 12 children, ages 6 months to 12 years, supervised by two people. In a Sept. 1 visit, a state inspector found the home in compliance with all rules except for six apparently minor violations, including a failure to post a written plan for evacuation and care of children in an emergency.
Licensing consultant JacquelinWindham of the state Office of Children and Adult Licensing approved a renewal of the license, noting that Rice submitted a written plan to correct the home's deficiencies.
Contact BEN SCHMITT at 313-223-4296 or
[email protected]. Staff writers Cecil Angel, Jim Schaefer, Marisol Bello and Patricia Montemurri contributed to this report.
Related stories >
