GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A downtown shooting early Sunday morning hurt four people in a crowd just before 2 a.m.
It caused chaos near Caesar Chavez and Oakes outside of The Grand Woods Lounge.
“Just a mass group of individuals. Just running from shootings. There were dozens of rounds fired,” Grand Rapids Police Chief Eric Winstrom said.
Officers dropped victims off at the hospital and used tourniquets to help stop bleeding from gunshot wounds, according to the chief. No one died. One person is currently in the hospital fighting for their life.
Winstrom describes this rash of shootings as "unsettling."
He says two officers were arresting a person who had just crashed a stolen Hyundai and had them in handcuffs near the intersection of Ottawa and Oakes, when bullets started flying.
“The officers were investigating a car crash, one of the vehicles was a Hyundai that was stolen. Literally was handcuffed on scene. The shooting started, the officers obviously had something much more important to direct their attention to,” Winstrom said.
Winstrom says he has no doubt the person who was driving the stolen Hyundai will be caught. He says they have clear images of them.
This incident, however, highlights the importance of cameras outside and inside downtown businesses, says Winstrom. Police say all local establishments are cooperating by giving security videos.
“With the ubiquity of surveillance cameras, in an urban environment like this... there’s really no reason businesses downtown shouldn’t have good cameras. Outward facing cameras, and inward-facing cameras,” Winstrom said.
Winstrom says in his time at GRPD they have added two additional patrol units to downtown GR.
