At least nine injured in ‘random’ shooting at water playground in Detroit suburb; suspect dead, police say

ROCHESTER HILLS, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) – At least nine people, including two children, were injured when a gunman opened fire at a wading pool in the Detroit suburb of Rochester Hills on Saturday night, authorities said. The 42-year-old suspect was later found dead. He committed suicide after an altercation at a home in a nearby community.

Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said in a press conference that the male suspect drove up in a vehicle shortly after 5 p.m. local time, got out and opened fire at the Brooklands Plaza Splash Pad, 1585 E. Auburn Road.

“It appears the individual stopped, exited a vehicle, approached the water play area, opened fire, reloaded, opened fire, reloaded and left,” Bouchard said. “It appears to be very random at this point… No connection to the victims.”

The nine victims were between the ages of 4 and 78, Bouchard said. An 8-year-old boy and a 39-year-old woman, both from the same family, were in critical condition. The boy suffered a gunshot wound to the head, the sheriff said.

The remaining victims were in stable condition and suffered from various gunshot wounds. At least four hospitals in the area treated the victims.

After the suspect, whose name was not released, fled the shooting, he was found to be at a home within a half-mile of the wading pool, Bouchard said. Authorities surrounded the barricaded home in Shelby Township and a standoff ensued.

“We very quickly identified who we thought was potentially involved based on some evidence on the scene and went there immediately,” Bouchard said in the earlier briefing. “A vehicle that matched the vehicle that left the scene was there. So we quickly set up a perimeter. And the officers on the scene apparently heard or saw the person they were trying to communicate with.”

During the shooting, the gunman fired 28 shots and reloaded several times, Bouchard said. A semi-automatic 9 mm Glock pistol and three empty magazines were seized at the scene.

Bouchard explained that officers were able to trace the gun’s registration to an address in Shelby Township where the suspect was believed to have lived with his mother.

Within an hour of the shooting, authorities had “sealed off” the house and “established a hard security perimeter” with special forces, helicopters and drones, Bouchard said. The suspect’s mother was not home at the time of the standoff, Bouchard said.

After failing to make contact with the suspect, officers entered the home and found the suspect dead inside with drones, Bouchard said. The sheriff also showed reporters a photo of a semi-automatic weapon found on a kitchen table. A second handgun was also found inside the home. Bouchard said the suspect died of a suspected self-inflicted gunshot wound.

“I think that because we got him under control so quickly, he had something else planned – and that wouldn’t surprise me, because having something like that on the kitchen table is not an everyday occurrence,” Bouchard said. “That there was probably something else, possibly a second chapter.”

Bouchard said investigators still do not have a motive for the shooting. The suspect “has no criminal history that we know of,” and investigators have so far found no connection between the suspect and the shooting scene.

Jared Schmidt, a Rochester Hills resident, told CBS News he was near the water playground when he heard “a lot of screeching cars, tires, people racing through the neighborhood and a woman screaming that there was a shooter.”

Schmidt said he jumped in his car and drove to the wading pool, where he found “a lot of blood” and began administering first aid to the victims, applying tourniquets and pressure bandages. He said a friend of his was among the injured.

“I know these people,” Schmidt said. “This is my neighborhood… These are family members… This is terrible.”

In his earlier remarks, Bouchard also said referenced the mass murder at Oxford High School in the nearby town of Oxford in 2021, in which a teenage gunman killed four classmates.

“This is obviously a gut punch for us here in Oakland County. We’ve seen so much tragedy,” Bouchard said. “We don’t even fully comprehend what happened in Oxford, and now we’re dealing with another tragedy.”

In a statement posted on social media, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer said she was “heartbroken to learn of the shooting in Rochester Hills. We are monitoring the situation as updates continue to come in and are in contact with local authorities.”

The city of Rochester Hills is located about 25 miles north of Detroit.