Neighbor of suspect in Rochester Hills splash pad shooting describes witnessing police standoff
(CBS DETROIT) - Neighbors say the shooter suspected of wounding nine people, including two children, Saturday at a Rochester Hills splash pad was quiet, kept to himself, and didn't really engage with the people living around him.
"Who knows what his plans were? He could've came back, you know. Some of the neighbors thought maybe he originally wanted to do something to us around here, but nobody was around, so he left," said Michelle Wheeler, a neighbor of the suspected shooter, 42-year-old Michael William Nash of Shelby Township.
Following the shooting, the suspect fled the scene and drove to his home. Authorities surrounded the barricaded home in Shelby Township, and a standoff ensued. The suspect later died by suicide following the standoff.
While the suspect was barricaded, police evacuated Wheeler, forcing her to another part of the mobile home park where she had to watch everything from her security cameras.
Wheeler says she's only lived there for about a year, but the shooter's next-door neighbor, Kyleen Duchene-McDougall, says she's lived next door for two decades.
"He was just quiet. I keep calling him a kid because we've been here 20 years. He's 42; I don't know how that happened. But just quiet. He hasn't worked since COVID. He just stays in the house; all the shades are always drawn; there's never any blinds or anything open, and he keeps to himself," said Duchene-McDougall.
Duchene-McDougall says conversations between her and the shooter's mother were always casual, and she says the shooter's father passed away a few years ago.
"I don't know why or what he was involved with as far as his mental state. She never shared that with me. It was just more of, 'Hi, how's it going?" said Duchene-McDougall.