Police on Sunday identified the man they say shot nine people, putting an 8-year-old boy in critical condition, when he fired more than two dozen bullets at families at a splash pad in the Detroit suburb of Rochester Hills, Michigan, a city that has ranked among the safest in the state and the country in recent years.
Oakland County officials document the scene where a shooting took place at Brooklands Plaza Splash ... [+]
Michael William Nash, 42, was identified as the man who opened fire at the Brooklands Plaza Splash Pad at around 5 p.m. Saturday, multiple outlets reported.
Nash walked onto the splash pad's platform and was as close as 20 feet to some victims when he started shooting his 9mm Glock, reloading twice and ultimately firing at least 28 rounds, police said.
Victims in the shooting include an 8-year-old boy who is in critical condition after he was shot in the head, CNN reported, as well as his 4-year-old brother who was shot in the leg, 39-year-old mom with wounds to her abdomen and leg and six other victims ranging in age from 30 to 78 who were also shot but in stable condition.
Police arrived at the scene within 2 minutes of the shooting, the Detroit Free Press reported, at which point the suspect had left and police descended upon his home.
Nash, who had no criminal history, was found dead inside his home from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound and police said they found a semi-automatic rifle on Nash's kitchen table.
No motive has been determined in what police called a “random” attack and the shooter has no known connection to any of the victims.
"If he had planned to do anything else, and it wouldn't surprise me, because having that on the kitchen table is not an everyday activity," Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said of discovering the rifle, suggesting Nash may have had plans for a "second chapter."
- That's how many mass shootings there have been in Michigan so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as an event in which at least four people, not including the shooter, are injured or killed. Forty-three people have been injured in the state and two have died.
There were five mass shootings on Saturday, one each in Michigan, Alabama, Texas, and Ohio, according to the GVA. Three people died and 29 were injured. There have been 223 mass shootings in the United States so far this year, according to theGVA, down almost 35% from the 301 there had been as of June 16, 2023. By this time last year, 365 people had been killed in mass shootings. So far in 2024, 240 people have died. Florida has led the year in the number of mass shootings so far—there have been 18 mass shootings in the state from January to June 16—but Illinois leads in the number of deaths with 25 victims killed.
Rochester Hills was named one of the safest cities in the United States by NeighborhoodScout last year and the second-safest city with a population of more than 70,000. It has been dubbed the safest city in Michigan for the last seven years, according to the town website, and Livability.com ranked Rochester Hills No. 20 on its list of the best places to live.