Around 5 p.m. Saturday, a man is believed to have pulled up in a vehicle to Brooklands Plaza Splash Pad in Rochester Hills and fired around 30 times, shooting as many as 10 people, including an 8-year-old, law enforcement said.
Police have recovered a 9mm handgun and three empty magazines from the splash pad, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said at a news briefing after the incident, adding that the shooting currently seems random, with the suspected shooter having no connection to the victims.
The victims’ ages range, but Bouchard said at least one of the victims is 8 years old. The conditions of the victims are not being shared publicly yet.
The emergency alert cautioning residents to avoid the area issued by the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office has been lifted.
The male suspect is contained but not in custody, Bouchard said. Police have the house surround that the suspect is in, which is about a half-mile from the splash pad. Police don’t believe anyone else is in the house with the suspect and they are utilizing their resources to communicate with him, without success.
Considering the Oxford High School shooting in November 2021, which killed four students and injured several others in the school, another mass shooting hits hard, Bouchard said.
“It’s a gut punch, obviously, for us here in Oakland County, we’ve gone through so many tragedies. We’re not even fully comprehending what happened at Oxford and now we have another complete tragedy that we’re dealing with,” Bouchard said.