2 15-year-olds arrested after man is shot in head in Pittsfield Township
Update: Teenagers arrested for apartment complex shooting could be charged as adults
Pittsfield Township police said a 15-year-old Ypsilanti boy shot a man in the back of the head outside an apartment building Thursday night and was arrested, along with a 15-year-old boy and 24-year-old man who allegedly were with him.
The 33-year-old victim, who is from Ypsilanti, remains in critical condition this morning at a local hospital after the shooting that police say might be drug-related.
The apartments where the shooting took place are located on the west side of Golfside, just south of Clark Road.
Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com
Officers responded to the Lexington Club at Ann Arbor complex at 2224 Golfside Road at about 7:06 p.m. after receiving multiple 911 calls of a man on the ground, bleeding, police said. The man collapsed after being shot just outside the door to a building in the northeast area of the complex, Deputy Police Chief Gordy Schick said. The teens met with the man at the complex shortly before the shooting, police said.
At about 10:30 p.m., after interviewing numerous witnesses, township police officers surrounded an apartment inside the building and ordered the suspects to come outside.
The teenagers were taken to the county's juvenile detention facility, while the man was taken to the Washtenaw County Jail. It's unclear when the juveniles will appear in court. Schick said none of the suspects are related and it's unclear how they know each other.
"We feel very confident we have everybody in custody," Schick said.
Police continue to investigate the case. Schick said it does not appear that there was a dispute prior to the shooting. It appears a single shot was fired from a handgun, he said.
Odessa Fuller, 63, who has lived in the complex for five years, said she used to see a security guard walking the halls, but hasn't seen one in two years.
"I don't know why they stopped it," she said. "They used to check and make sure the doors be locked and everything." Residents often leave doors open to the outside and many visitors come and go, she said.
Anyone with information on the shooting can call police at (734) 822-4911 or the department's confidential tip line at (734) 822-4958.
Lee Higgins covers crime and courts for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached by phone at (734) 623-2527 and email at leehiggins@annarbor.com.
Comments
boo
Fri, Jan 20, 2012 : 9:47 p.m.
these poor kids. just misguided. thats all.
easy123
Sat, Jan 21, 2012 : 3:59 a.m.
Vette96drvr - sarcasm! sarcasm. need to watch more english shows
Vette96drvr
Sat, Jan 21, 2012 : 2:51 a.m.
poor kids? Misguided?? Give me a break! My parents were dirtbags but I still knew right from wrong and chose to NOT follow in their paths and make something of myself. That whole "a product of your enviroment" argument is crap. We each make our own decisions as these kids did! Michigan needs the death penalty!
Wolf's Bane
Fri, Jan 20, 2012 : 6:20 p.m.
None of the folks involved were 55+ which begs the question, where are they living?
Ron Granger
Fri, Jan 20, 2012 : 5:55 p.m.
It may be a senior community, but seniors are people too. And they have vices. Maybe the residents could take turns putting on a security uniform and walking the property.
LaMusica
Fri, Jan 20, 2012 : 5:28 p.m.
Oh my...15. I see they were taken to the juvenile center, but I wonder if they will be charged as adults.
MjC
Fri, Jan 20, 2012 : 7:16 p.m.
Oh but they are your kids EyeHeartA2... there all of our kids. Every single human being who lives in our community is a part of our social structure. We are all responsible in one way or another (whether we had children or not) for the upbringing and education of each and every child. Unfortunately there is nothing we can do but send these two to prison. But they'll be out at 21, if not sooner - and what will they have learned in prison?
say it plain
Fri, Jan 20, 2012 : 7:09 p.m.
Didn't say I was speaking for anybody but the adults in their lives. All of them. They are *your society's* kids, though...you can pretend you have absolutely nothing to do with it all. And I'm not discounting the idea that individuals can be deeply messed up in ways that society cannot necessarily do much to affect. And I am not discounting anybody's insistence on the idea of 'free will' even for minors or near-minors. But it's a sort of deep social breakdown when people shoot each other. Even sadder when it's a kid. Not absolving them of responsibility for it, just saying how sad it is for us all. You can fail to be sad, but that's a statement as well.
EyeHeartA2
Fri, Jan 20, 2012 : 6:11 p.m.
Speak for yourself. I didn't fail anybody. This was their choice, not mine. Sorry, society is not to blame. Maybe the parents, but they aren't my kids.
say it plain
Fri, Jan 20, 2012 : 5:59 p.m.
Exactly... how terribly terribly awful it is that 15-year-olds kids are getting access to guns, and are willing to use them. We have so failed anyone in such a situation. We charge such minors as adults, but what good does that do, really? I guess we have to hope it serves as a deterrent to other troubled kids, and I don't know what the evidence is like on that issue.... So disturbing, whatever the exact circumstances may have been...
Pixie Belle
Fri, Jan 20, 2012 : 4:39 p.m.
I am very confused as to how this happened this is a senior community. It is owned by the same company as neighboring Arbor Pointe. Why would they ever rent to younger people when they can just send them to the next office over. I think what is happening is that older residents are living there with grandchildren and adult kids on or off the lease.
Pixie Belle
Fri, Jan 20, 2012 : 8:06 p.m.
This is true I was just stating what happens over there. I live in Arbor Point very close to Lexington. At least one of the suspects or someone they knew lived there. Why else would they be inside an apartment.
justcurious
Fri, Jan 20, 2012 : 5:03 p.m.
You're probably right. So many parents are dumping their kids on the grandparents now. But it is possible that the 15 year olds didn't reside there at all.
G. Orwell
Fri, Jan 20, 2012 : 4:28 p.m.
@smokeblwr "Build more prisons." How abouteizing and regulating drugs, like we do with alcohol. The war on drugs is a scam and it does not work. The US already has the largest prison population in the world. Are we really a free society?
WalkingJoe
Fri, Jan 20, 2012 : 4:12 p.m.
@zanaerbar, I believe you are thinking about the complex across the street. The reason I say this is that my father lived in Lexington Club back in 2004-2006 and to my recollection it was known as Lexington from when it was first built. It is supposed to be a "Senior Living Community". But even back then the management didn't adhere to this and would rent to younger people and it seemed as though it was always trouble makers.
smokeblwr
Fri, Jan 20, 2012 : 4:08 p.m.
Build more Prisons.
Vette96drvr
Sat, Jan 21, 2012 : 2:52 a.m.
more prisons and Michigan needs the death penalty!
EyeHeartA2
Fri, Jan 20, 2012 : 6:05 p.m.
Well, jeeze Cash, since you asked, I would say quite well: "The most likely reason for the decline can be summed up in a single word: jail. More arrests, longer sentences, fewer paroles, and a prison-building spree between 1986 and 1996 almost tripled Michigan's prisoner population, from 15,000 to 42,000. The best evidence that increased incarceration worked in Michigan is that the national crime rate kept right on climbing until 1993--then began dropping when the whole nation went on a prison-building spree." <a href="http://arborweb.com/articles/the_better_angels_of_ann_arbor_full_article.html" rel='nofollow'>http://arborweb.com/articles/the_better_angels_of_ann_arbor_full_article.html</a>
Cash
Fri, Jan 20, 2012 : 5:52 p.m.
How's that working for you?
actionjackson
Fri, Jan 20, 2012 : 3:46 p.m.
Doesn't seem like name change did any good!
zanzerbar
Fri, Jan 20, 2012 : 3:39 p.m.
There was a shooting at this same complex several years ago.(resulted in a death) It was then named Strawberry Apartments. They changed their name to Lexington Club after the shooting.
Lisa Kane
Fri, Jan 20, 2012 : 6:05 p.m.
Strawberry was on Washtenaw across from the McD's. You could enter from Packard too.