4 Shot Near Detroit School; Student Dead

Gunman Stepped Out Of SUV Near Victims' High School; Three Teenage Suspects In Custody

(AP)  A gunman stepped out of a sport utility vehicle and shot four teenagers on a primary-school lawn near their Detroit high school shortly after class let out Thursday, killing one of them, police said.

Three teenagers were arrested at their homes about five hours after the shooting near Henry Ford High School, Deputy Police Chief James Tate said. The male suspects are 15, 16 and 18, and the 16-year-old is a student at the high school, Tate said.

One suspect and one victim had fought earlier in the day at the school, he said.

Christopher Walker, 16, was pronounced dead at Providence Hospital, a spokesman said. He was an 11th-grader at Henry Ford, Detroit Public Schools spokesman Steve Wasko told the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News.

A 15-year-old female student was being treated at Providence for a gunshot wound, Wasko said. A 16-year-old male 10th-grader and another 16-year-old boy no longer enrolled at Henry Ford were being treated at another hospital, Wasko said.

All three were in serious condition, said Wasko, who did not return calls from The Associated Press on Thursday night.

Jamile Barber, 31, said he was sitting in his house across the street from the high school when he heard a noise about 3:15 p.m.

"I thought something was smacking up against the house - pop, pop, pop, pop, pop," Barber said. "Then I heard girls screaming and I saw 100, 200 kids running back toward the school. From there it was just chaos, people screaming and scrambling around."

Barber said he saw "two bodies, stiff and not moving" on the lawn outside the Michigan Technical Academy campus for pre-kindergarten through second grade, next to the high school.

"I saw people running down there, trying to give aid," he said. "The police and ambulances got there pretty fast."

Witnesses told police the gunman stepped out of a car that had stopped at a corner, fired the shots and got back into the car before it sped away, Tate said.

Police recovered a black Mazda SUV in which witnesses saw the suspects riding, but they had not recovered any weapons, Tate said. He said at least seven shell casings from an automatic weapon were found.

It wasn't known whether anyone was inside the Michigan Technical Academy at the time. The high school is on a busy street in a neighborhood of well-kept brick ranch houses and clean, tree-lined side streets.

Barber, who grew up on Detroit's east side, said he moved there in July with his two daughters.

"It seemed to be a pretty good neighborhood," he said. "But now I've been hearing it's one of the worst schools in Detroit. People told me, 'You just wait till school starts."'

A community meeting to discuss the shootings was to be held Friday at the school, and Barber said he would attend. "I just want to know what's going on."

[gatofeo]

Detroit has some of the most stringent gun control laws in the nation. So do New York, Washington, D.C. and San Francisco.
Yet, they all suffer from violence perpetrated upon innocent civilians by criminals with guns.
Conversely, states that allow residents a legal means to carry a concealed handgun have experienced reduced crime.
Why?
Because the criminals are unsure who is armed. That 27-year-old college student? That taxi driver? The housewife walking to the grocery store?
I''ve had a concealed weapon permit since 1979.
Twice, it''s saved me from a criminal who threatened to beat or knife me. And I didn''t have to fire a shot; the mere display of my handgun sent them running.
The People have a right to own firearms. Self-defense is a basic right through the ages.
Let every law-abiding citizen have the choice to carry a concealed weapon.
And while we''re at it, let''s swiftly execute those who murder and rape. It would send a message to those who have no fear of the death penalty, as it is currently employed.
Twelve to 20 years on Death Row, filing endless appeals while you earn your college degree and ponder ways to stifle the system is hardly punishment.
I support rehabilitation through reincarnation!

[antoniof123]

Brucie2006 says this article is about gun control and regulation. I say this article is about criminal control and regulation. This is about a breakdown in inner cities brought on by liberalism. If taxpayers quit paying women to hatch out criminals, the criminal population will decline. Let evolution take its natural course.
Posted by runningralph at 10:48 AM : Oct 17, 2008

Do all right wing nuts go to special schools to be dumb or are they born that way. Please this has nothing to do with liberal or conservative it is a social problem not a political problem.

God no wonder why the GOP is in such sad shape. This is coming from a former Republican. Sorry to burst your bubble.

[rrozsa-2009]

That''''s what happened to the native Americans. They accepted all those Europeans in their culture and the Europeans stole their land, raped their women, and almost killed them all.
Posted by elcantante1 at 10:19 AM : Oct 17, 2008
---------------------------------------------------

You make a good argument in favor of stronger border/immigration controls! ;-)

[rrozsa-2009]

The bottom-line reason I will never give up my gun is that no dictator has ever taken over an unarmed country.

[runningralph]

Brucie2006 says this article is about gun control and regulation. I say this article is about criminal control and regulation. This is about a breakdown in inner cities brought on by liberalism. If taxpayers quit paying women to hatch out criminals, the criminal population will decline. Let evolution take its natural course.

[chad55555]

The experts say diversity is good, accept all religions,accept all races and ideas,accept all hispanics and their culture,take the God that started this country out of school,let teachers teach trash to students. WELL I GUESS THE EXPERTS ARE WRONG. TIMES HAS TAUGHT US WELL IF WE ARE WILLING TO LEARN GO BACK TO THE OLD WAY PUT THE CHRISTIAN GOD BACK INTO THE HEARTS OF PEOPLE,THE BEST POLICEMAN OF ALL IS ONE IN YOUR HEART THAT TELL YOU RIGHT FROM WRONG. THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH GUNS. MY HEART AND PRAYERS GO OUT TO ALL THE PEOPLE HARMED BY OTHERS BECAUSE NOW WE KNOW DIVERSITY WILL DESTROY A SCOIETY.

[usclimey]

El C. - I wonder if maxify55 is a new monicker for our old buddy gunownerdan who''s name I haven''t seen in months.

[usclimey]

I am a State Armour and Range specialist for the state in which I reside.

Posted by maxify55

What is "a State Armour and Range specialist?"

[usclimey]

elcantante - I''m usually one of your biggest supporters here, I firmly believe that this country would be better served than it is now by the demolition of every firearm. I am, however, pragmatic enough to know that''s not going to happen - 300 million guns owned by 60 million gun lovers are not going to disappear overnight. I''m going to play devil''s advocate here.

Your stats, which are usually spot , seem a little awry in your 9.13 post. First you claim in 2004 there were 5,339 murders commited by whites and 5,608 by blacks. Next you say adjustment to population the white murder rate is much higher. There are still a majority of "whites" in this country - so I believe that that would make the rate higher in the "black" population. Also you have stated that gun deaths account for 30 - 36,000 per year yet your "black + white" total quoted here is only a little under 11,000. How do you reconcile those two stats.

[three-o-six]

tedibear46

You CAN''T get rid of guns. Too many of us have them and we will NEVER give them up. Ever hear of the 2nd Amendment? You ever try to take a gun from some one who refused to give it up???

[brucie2006]

runningralph at 08:50 AM

Your''re a good example why McShame is loosing. This is about GUN CONTROL and regulations.

[gop_will_win]

SAVAGES!

[runningralph]

Liberal policies remove the need for marriage in the child rearing process. This leads to poverty, dropouts, addiction, crime, lower IQ, violence. That started in the US during the Great Depression. After 4 generations of this we have rampant crime and overflowing prisons. This situation was not caused by the black race. The inner city crime problem was bought and paid for by the American taxpayer.

This isnt a black or white issue, its a GUN issue. GUNS need to be outlawed NOT SUV''s. Get rid of the Guns and I believe we will be well on our way to lowering the crime rate.

[usclimey]

You mean like the 200 and some felons that Slick Willy pardon just before he left office??

Posted by flyboyozw

You GOPers and your Slick Willy obsession really are pathetic. It''s those fear and smear tacitcs that have lost you this election.

[usclimey]

That pale in comparison with serial killers and pedophiles.

Posted by elcantante1

Have to disagree with you on that one El C. Serial killers count for a very few murders compared to the National average. Serial killers also don''t oftes use guns. They enjoy the more personal side of the kill. Guns are used by gangsters and spree killers because they''re fast, deadly and require no emotional attachment to the situation.

[flyboyozw]

Bush has made a mockery of law and order. These teens were raised in an environment where their president pardons felons, ignores the constitution and practices genocide and torture......

You mean like the 200 and some felons that Slick Willy pardon just before he left office??

[usclimey]

Where''''s the proof?

...............Where am I wrong?

Posted by perceptions5

I ask you again (as I have every time you''ve brought up this specious argument), if your reactionary right politics were magically put in place overnight in these "deep blue" cities, what exactly would you do to solve the problem? Put them in concentration camps? Fence off parts of the city? Private police force? Watch the RoboCop series. That even takes place in Detroit.

[bhappy2-2]

We must BAN these evil SUVs. There are just too many SUVs being used for road rage, drunk driving and now they are being used to transport CRIMINALS to do their dirty deeds. BAN the SUVs! Without easy access to SUVs this would never have happened. Just the other day in Florida there was one that drove UNDER a school bus. The driver died and some kids were injured. Get rid of the SUVs before you or a member of your family is victimized by someone driving an SUV.

[usclimey]

Since the Detroit Police Dept can''''t control crime in this city, the only answer to the problem is for the citizen to take up arms and fix it themselves. Law and Order isn''''t working because the law isn''''t enforcing the law. The police has no interest in protecting the public because they''''ve no stake in crime prevention.

Posted by ApprxAm

Didn''t they make a series of movies about what happens when your theory is put into practice - RoboCop 1,2 and 3?