World

Ten wounded in Detroit water park shooting

15:02 pm on 16 June 2024

Officials with the Oakland County Sheriff's Department, Rochester Hills Fire Department and other jurisdictions secure the scene of a shooting at the Brooklands Plaza Splash Pad, Saturday, 15 June, 2024, in Rochester Hills, Mich. Photo: Katy Kildee / AP

As many as 10 people, including children, have been shot and wounded at a city-run water park near Detroit on Saturday evening, police said, calling the incident random gunfire.

The suspect was still at large late on Saturday, but police said they believed he was cornered in a house nearby. The gun was found at the scene, police said.

A man got out of a vehicle in front of Brooklands Plaza Splash Pad park, in Rochester Hills, Michigan, about 5pm (local time) and fired about 30 shots from a 9mm semiautomatic Glock, reloading several times, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard told a press conference.

It was not immediately clear if there were any fatalities, said police, who had initially reported five people shot.

Rochester Hills is about 50km north of Detroit. The neighbouring community Oxford Township, also in Oakland County, was the scene of a 2021 mass school shooting where student Ethan Crumbley, then 15, killed four students and wounded six other students and a teacher at Oxford High School.

"It's a gut punch, obviously, for us here in Oakland County," Bouchard said. "We've gone through so many tragedies, you know. We're not even fully comprehending what happened at Oxford."

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer said on X, "I am heartbroken to learn about the shooting in Rochester Hills."

- Reuters