Detroit police are not calling them suspects, but say they are questioning people in connection with a firebombing on the city's east side that killed the father of a Detroit police homicide investigator.

WWJ spoke with Fire Captain Steven Varnas who says three houses on the same block were attacked on Manistique near Warren Avenue late Wednesday night.

The fire-bombing may have been in retaliation for an earlier fight at a club involving a neighbor, and Varnas said this looks like a case of mistaken identity.

"What we're examining right now is that there's a possibility that one of the houses that was hit with a cocktail was the target, and that the victim was not in the house that was targeted," he said.

"This was three houses in a row with no connection. It wasn't like it was the same owner of all three houses. They were all different owners and difference circumstances, but because they were all next to each other, we believe they were targeted so that in case they had the wrong house, they could get someone in another house," Varnas said.

The victim has been identified as 70-year-old Russell Marcillis Sr., but that was not immediately confirmed by police. Other people in the home, including Marcillis's wife, were not harmed.

Construction crews were boarding up the home early Thursday. "Right now…I don't have no feeling right now. I'm in another place, I just can't believe it,"  said the couple's son.

An investigation is ongoing.