KENT COUNTY, Mich. — We have seen police respond to several violent crimes in the county over the past several days, just weeks after voters in Wyoming rejected a public safety millage. Their department has seen an increase in gun crimes over the past 3 years, and sometimes struggle to respond to every call in a timely manner.
On Saturday, just before 11:15 p.m., Grand Rapids Dispatch got 911 calls about someone possibly shot in a lot near the 4200 block of Kalamazoo Avenue Southeast.
Officers said when they were investigating the shooting, a man arrived at the hospital with a gunshot wound where he later died from his injuries. Another man arrived at the hospital around the same time with a gunshot wound, although his injuries were non-life-threatening.
On Sunday morning, around 2:25 a.m., police responded to a report of multiple shots fired near the intersection of Wealthy Street and Ethel Avenue in Eastown, damaging the windows of multiple businesses.
And then, just after 11:00 a.m., Grand Rapids police responded to a 40-year-old man shot dead on Martin Luther King Jr. Street, near Geneva Avenue.
Monday afternoon, multiple shots were fired into a parked car near the intersection of the East Beltline and 28th Street. An adult in the car was injured, but is expected to survive.
Later on Monday, police in Wyoming say 4 men rushed into an apartment in the 1900 block of Prairie Parkway Southwest, shooting a man inside. He was hospitalized in stable condition.
Soon after that, Grand Rapids police received calls about a shooting on South Division Avenue. According to police, it was reported that someone shot at a vehicle from another vehicle. No one was injured in this incident.
This all comes after voters in Wyoming voted down a proposed income tax hike that would have funded public safety, and allowed the city to hire 13 more patrol officers.
Wyoming City Manager Curtis Holt told FOX 17 the day after the election, “we've seen more gun violence in the last 3 years than we've seen in the previous 10... we're basically a reactive police department today, as we stand here, meaning that our officers are out there usually going call to call to call.”
The City of Wyoming is now throwing around the idea of a millage to help with increased demand on public safety, but nothing is set in stone at this point.
For now, Wyoming will have to manage with their current staffing.
“One can feel overwhelmed and frustrated sometimes wearing the uniform.... they still show up, they still arrive on time, they still get the job done as best they can, even under the stressful situations,” explained Lewis Langham a former detective with the Michigan State Police, and current law professor at WMU-Cooley.
“You're going to one location, something else occurs, and dispatches sending you somewhere else at the same time, and you haven't quite wrapped up your investigation here.”
This is all happening as we go into the summer months, a time that Grand Rapids has historically seen an increase in calls about gun crimes.
