Suspicious Vehicles Targeted In Search For Freeway Shooter
WIXOM (WWJ/AP) - Police have stopped a number of cars that appear to be involved in "suspicious activities" along some southeast Michigan roads and freeways in an effort to find a man shooting randomly at passing vehicles.
Officers are looking for anything out of the norm as part of a four-county investigation into two dozen vehicle shootings, said Lt. Mike Shaw, of the state police post in Brighton. Shootings have been reported in Oakland, Livingston, Ingham and Shiawassee counties.
Witnesses have described the suspect's vehicle as resembling a dark 1998 Oldsmobile Alero or a 1998 Toyota Camry. Police on Monday stopped the driver of a dark-colored Chevy Cavalier after a woman reported something hit her car on U.S. 23 near Brighton.
Those initial descriptions may not be correct, Shaw told The Associated Press Tuesday.
"We've had 22 victims that have tried to identify a vehicle traveling at 60 to 70 miles per hour," he said. "We're looking for more suspicious activities that go with four-door vehicles and those darker in color - somebody that's pulled over on the side of a road or coming out of a wood line on the side of a freeway. Or if you see the same car driving around with no sense of purpose.
"We'd rather check that out and err on the side of caution."
Shaw didn't have any totals on the number of cars stopped, but said drivers "have been more than cooperative."
More than 100 local police, sheriff's deputies, state troopers and federal agents are involved in the case which started Oct. 16 with shootings reported in Wixom, about 25 miles northwest of Detroit. The first report was of a man who said he heard a bullet fly by his head as he was taking out the garbage near Wixom Road and Loon Lake Road.
A West Michigan man was shot in the buttocks Saturday while driving to Detroit along Interstate 96 in Livingston County. He is the only person wounded so far, but the suspect is believed to be shooting at people - not just their vehicles, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said Tuesday.
"It's been more of the grace of God than the guy intentionally missing people," Bouchard said. "We've had people who have been missed within inches. One bullet was lodged in a driver's seat."
The suspect is believed to be shooting at vehicles that he is approaching from the opposite direction, Shaw said.
Some motorists didn't realize their vehicles had been hit until a quarter-mile or more later.
Oakland County investigators have confirmed through ballistic evidence that the shootings have come from the same firearm.
A task force put together to investigate the shootings have received more than 800 tips, including 200 that came in after a reward in the case was increased Monday from $12,000 to $102,000, Bouchard said.
Of concern for Wixom police is how people's lives are being affected by fear of the shooter.
"For Halloween, we are going to do special patrols in each of our subdivisions so kids can have a normal Halloween," said Clarence Goodlein, public safety director. "We're not going to be in the business of letting a thug and hoodlum bully us and change the course of our lives."
Anyone with information about the shootings is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-SPEAK-UP. You can also submit a tip online at www.1800speakup.org, or text "CSM" and your tip to CRIMES (274637).
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