ROOSEVELT PARK, Mich. — Tiera Winters still can’t believe that her big brother Darion Hunter is gone.
Fox 17 reached out to her for an interview. She declined. However she provided the following statement:
“Dari was a really good person. In my eyes he could do no wrong. He was always there for me and supported me through whatever. He was a people person and every person that met him loved him. We all miss him so much”
She also identified the other brother as Quintae Hunter.
Tracy Smith was among the dozens of witnesses that night. She first peaked out of her daughter’s window to see what was going on. Then she stepped outside.
“All of the police were outside and I came outside to see what was going on,” Smith recalled about the scene near Tiffany Woods Apartments. “All the ruckus. [Onlookers] trying to get somebody out of the car. A lot of screaming. Somebody trying to help the police get the man out of the car, thought it would be more comfortable for him to get him out versus the police but they wouldn’t let him go.”
Smith took video of the scene and gave it to FOX 17.
Roosevelt Park Police Chief David Boone told FOX 17 that two brothers were dead in what appeared to be a murder-suicide. One brother was in the front passenger seat. The other was in the back with little children. The mother was the driver.
Police said the man in the back shot and killed the brother in the front and then turned the gun on himself. The mother and children got away safely. That shooter was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
“Too close to home for sure,” Smith said. “It’s very sad, very sad situation that the kids are going to grow up that they had witnessed their dad being killed.”
The people across the street at Trinity Lutheran Church and West Shore Lutheran School and Daycare Center were saddened too by the shooting, they said.
The director of the center Lisa Serene said she first learned about the shooting the night before when she got a text message from a co-worker who lives in the apartment complex. The co-worker was concerned about safety.
“Then this morning I got another message, phone call from my opener saying that she couldn’t get into the lot,” Serene said. “There’s police surrounding the area and she wanted to know what to do next. We decided to go to the other side of our building to open up. But the police had assured her as well that the scene was safe and we could have children at the daycare.”
Serene said the shooting was "unnerving" and all she could think about was safety.
Pastor Paul Appold of Trinity Lutheran said the church will be praying for all impacted by the shooting.
“My heart goes out to the people at Tiffany Woods,” he said. “We have interaction with them very often, and know several people that certainly live there in Tiffany Woods as well. So, we’re just saddened by the event.”
