ST. JOSEPH, Mich. — Monday's sunny Memorial Day holiday ended in gunfire in Berrien County. Police said a shooting occurred at Silver Beach County Park in St. Joseph and as many as 15 shots were fired.
“We had a lot of people in town having a great time on Silver beach all weekend,” said Berrien County Sheriff Paul Bailey referring to the large groups of people at the park and attending the Senior PGA Tour. “But Monday night we seemed to have a crowd that seemed to get a little bit rowdy in the evening hours.”
Bailey said officers were called to the beach at 7pm to calm a rowdy crowd. Two hours later, they were called back.
“About 9:03, right around 9 o’clock we got a call of shots fired down on the beach,” said Bailey. “Several shots fired.”
The Berrien County Sheriff’s Department issued a statement Tuesday saying that a shooting occurred near the public restrooms at Silver beach involving two men. Fortunately no one, including witnesses nearby, were hurt.
“Once the disturbance occurred, these individuals went back to their vehicles and got weapons and starting shooting them,” said Bailey. “The cartridges were found next to the vehicles where we found the guns in the cars.”
Both men were arrested that night and three guns were recovered. Police have identified the suspects as Velver Robinson and Deontae Harris, both from Elkhart, IN. Robinson was arraigned on four charges including reckless discharge of a firearm and Harris on two charges of carrying a concealed weapon in violation of the code.
Vacationers said they were shocked to hear about the shoot. However, they’ll be back.
“Sometimes you can’t avoid situations like that,” said Mike Kelley visiting with his family from Sacramento, CA. “Gang bangers are going to go where the beach is, you know. It was a big group of people so you can’t always avoid those types of situations.”
Last summer during the 4th of July, there was a similar disturbance on the beach in which police had to break up several fights between large groups of teenagers. Five people were arrested. Bailey said going forward folks will see more police presence at Silver beach.
“We will have extra people there to make sure it’s safe for everybody,” said Bailey. “We’re going to have zero tolerance. We’re going to be checking water coolers. We’re going to be making sure that everybody’s following the rules.”
