Teen boy, woman shot and killed in Michigan after dispute over soccer game
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — A young man who was turned away from an unofficial football game in Michigan shot a 15-year-old boy in front of other children and killed a woman who tried to help the victim, police said.
“There were at least seven or eight kids here; teenagers, older teenagers who witnessed this; it’s a terrible thing for anyone to witness, let alone teenagers,” said Joe Trigg, Grand Rapids’ interim police chief.
The shooting happened Tuesday evening near Southwest Elementary School. Classes there and another nearby school were canceled Wednesday.
Trigg said kids were playing football when an 18-year-old wanted to get involved.
“For whatever reason, he was turned away,” Trigg said. “She did not like being turned away and a verbal altercation ensued, which led to the suspect pulling out a firearm and shooting that child. The adult female verbally came to the aid of the juvenile victim and she was also targeted.”
Police said the suspect ran away but was caught and arrested.
The Grand Rapids school district closed two schools Wednesday so the community could “process what happened in our neighborhood.”
“It’s very difficult,” local resident Donny Irving told WOOD-TV while visiting the site. “Everyone knows a young person, they know people who go to playgrounds, who play, they know school children, and I think the whole community feels the loss there.”
