OT: Shots fired outside St. Andrews and The Kingdom in Downtown Detroit
Crazy night last night - I live right next door to St. Andrews and The Kingdom night clubs in Downtown Detroit. Last night, at 1:52 AM, I woke up to 16 shots being fired as the night club let out, and looked out my window to see a guy, dead, laying in a pool of his own blood feet outside the club. The police came fast to look for a suspect, but man, the paramedics were SLOW.
I know shootings aren't unusual for Detroit, but also know these two night clubs get quite the draw from the suburbs. Since the news doesn't seem to think it is worth reporting - wanted to let the mgoblogosphere know in case it impacts your club of choice.
You may now return to your regularly scheduled spring game programming.
EDIT: Channel 4 reported on the shooting this morning. According to police reports, the man was in his car and tried to run over somebody outside the door, when the bouncers opened fire. The blood remains on the street this morning.
That's a traumatic thing to witness. Been there many times, and while it's always a little bit sketchy, it's never seemed "guy gets shot and killed right out front" sketchy.
Sucks...
...any more updates?
Updates in my initial post*
Jeez. Detroit is like the wild wild west.
you're an ear witness, you should call the police.
My prayers will be with the victims...
Your reference to EMS being slow, it kind of bothered me, maybe it is because the layperson has no clue what we do for a living. Whenever there is a report of a fight, domestic, or anything of that type. EMS stages, we are not permitted to enter the scene. THe chances of the perp still being on scene is highly unlikely, however, there is a chance he/she could be waiting for anyone (police or EMS) to come and render care to the victim. This is a classic response when something traumatic happens, as every thinks EMS sholuld be there right away. I can guarantee EMS was dispatched and they were staged several blocks away, awaiting for the ok from Police to state the scene is safe.
I felt the need to post this after the poor reporting that came out the other day about Detroit EMs, and thier response times to a shooting of a car full of (I believe) teens, or early twenties.
Perhaps my comment requires some further clarification.
The EMS was decently quick at responding to the scene, arriving probably 2-3 minutes after the police investigators.
The slow part - and I'm sure there is an explanation for this and would love to learn - was what happened once they arrived. They certainly talked to police, but then they literally ignored the body and stood there talking amongst themselves for quite some time before evaluating the body to pronounce dead or determine if care needed to be rendered.
It was almost as if people were taking the approach of the guy shot was a known criminal, and they wanted him to pass.
It's just my thought that if the guy was dead, there was not much EMS could do to help him at that point. I don't know if that was the case, but it would explain the lack of attention to the victim.
April 16th, 2011 at 11:14 AM ^
Correct, if Police checked the guys pulse and there wasn't one, then EMS should have hooked the monitor up to him to confirm he truely was dead. However, being it was a crime scene, EMS needs to take extra special care in preserving the scene as not to damage the integrity of that scene. THe victim probably did nto have a pulse and his injuries were most likely incompatable with life. Hope this helps.
April 16th, 2011 at 11:19 AM ^
has gotten notoriously bad of late - in fact, it's the worst in the country. Charlie LeDuff (local reporter, Michigan grad, former writer for the Michigan Daily) has been covering this quite a bit. If you need an ambulance for any reason in the city of Detroit, it could take 20-30 minutes for anyone to come. You're better off driving yourself to the hospital than waiting for an ambulance to come.
Umm, What the hell are you doing living in downtown detroit?
It's actually a nice place to live, especially when you work downtown. Don't get caught up in the media. There are bad neighborhoods in Detroit like every other major city, but downtown is cool and generally safe.
April 16th, 2011 at 11:02 AM ^
There's lot of nice things to do downtown. Most of them within walking distance (or a short peoplemover ride) too. Sports, bars & restaurants, casinos, parks... Also fun events like the Thanksgiving Day parade, electronic music fest, marathon, etc.
Besides, bad stuff happens everywhere. Gustavia might be the one of the safest (nearly crime free) towns in the world but a couple of weeks ago a crazy woman randomly attacked and murdered another woman who was doing nothing more than walking home from work. Stabbed her 30 times and literally left a bloody mess in the middle of the main street. Shit happens, and it does happen everywhere.
April 16th, 2011 at 11:37 AM ^
but bad shit happens more in Detroit. I'm sorry, I think you are using term "nice" very loosely. Don't let my handle fool you, I was born in Detroit and my parents currently live in Birmingham. My parents went to UofD (before it was UDM) and my mom was a freshman during the riots. Detroit is not a nice city by any means. It is a corrupt racist city that is still sinking into the ground. A park here and there and a parade doesn't make downtown nice.
I had a former roommate from Detroit who went to Iraq for the war. He said outside the war zone, Baghdad was quite nice - nice suburbs, decent food and good people believe it or not. He said if there wasn't a war, he might rather live in Bahgdad than Detroit.
April 16th, 2011 at 12:09 PM ^
You understand that the whole reason most people live in the suburbs is racially motivated right? and that is the main factor in why Detroit has deteriorated so much.
You understand that the whole reason most people live in the suburbs is racially motivated right?
Right, it couldn't have anything to do with the city's atrocious public schools, high crime rate, dreadful city services and generally poor quality of life (do you enjoy driving 30 minutes to the nearest grocery store?). It's all about racism, even though black people aren't exactly eager to stay put in the city, either - the city has lost over 200,000 black residents since 2000.
Coleman Young was a racist blowhard that wanted a lot of whites out of the city. That mentality permiated through successive regimes (with perhaps an exception in Mayor Archer).
Some of my parents friends are hanging on to their houses by a thread in Rosedale Park, but some of the racial BS from the cops is making it hard.
And my parents neighbor used to own the only Caddy dealer in Detroit. The city councel was pissed as hell that it was not owned by a black person. I think they got thier wish.
So yes, some of it was racially motivated.
That's more reasonable. The 1973 mayoral election was certainly racially-charged, and Young was not very good at reaching out to his political opponents to build a consensus.
But to chalk it all up to racism implies that there is no other reasonable reason that people don't want to live in the city, which is ridiculous. I like Detroit. I don't want it to be a punching bag. But as it is, most of the city is a disaster right now. Bing's consolidation proposal may be the best bet to change that. The city can't afford to provide quality services to 139 square miles of inhabited property right now.
I'm sorry where is your personal experience with Detroit? So far I know you were born there and your parents moved to Birmingham.
Trust me. I have had PLENTY of experience with downtown Detroit to know that it is not a nice place.
I will be in there for the Tigers/White Sox game next weekend.
April 16th, 2011 at 11:26 AM ^
And Robocop never made it to the scene! Detroit is really in the shitter now...
robocop lacks top end speed.
In Robocop 3, he is retro-fitted with a flying pack. He could have used that. But stupid OCP breuacracy got in the way. I guess I shouldn't complain, its much better than when Dick Jones was running the place.
April 16th, 2011 at 11:30 AM ^
why do the bouncers have guns? that seems strange to me.
April 16th, 2011 at 11:51 AM ^
It's usually because they are offduty police officers, and are allowed to cary a piece.
April 16th, 2011 at 12:55 PM ^
Sounds terrible. I must say, though, Im impressed with your ability to awaken from gunshots and have the wherewithall to count them at 2 AM...surprised the blood wasnt rinsed away ASAP, considering the outcome. Unfortunate situation.
April 16th, 2011 at 12:56 PM ^
I WORK AT THE KINGDOM.... I AM A ONE OF THE ARMED GUARDS AT THE CLUB AND OFCOURSE I CANT GET INTO DETAIL BUT I AM THE ONE WHO PUT THE GUY OUT THE CLUB INITIALLY AND HE WASNT BEAT UP OR TREATED IN ANY I'LL MANNER TILL HE TRIED TO FIGHT SECURITY OUTSIDE AND THE HE WAS PEPPER SPRAYED..... THE YOUNG MAN TRIED TO RUN DOWN SECURITY IN HIS ALL WHITE EXPIDETION TRUCK AND YES HE WAS FIRED UPON!..... IM SORRY BUT EMS WAS NOT GOING TO BE ABLE TO SAVE A MAN SHOT AT 22 TIMES CLOSE RANGE...... I WATCHED HIM TAKE HIS LAST BREATH.............. TO THE FAMILY I AM GREATLY SORRY BUT WE HAD NO CHOICE IN THE MATTER HE TRIED TO KILL US OVER NOTHING
Hahaha! It will be fun to see this post as evidence in the trial!
I think it's hysterical a security guard would immediately post on mgblog the day after the shooting with his explanation as to why some dude was shot. Or sweet trolling... either way.
Let's just assume this is a hoax...
I understand, but why are you yelling?
I would also post this apology on RCMB in case his family members are State fans.
Do you seriously think it was necessary to shoot off 22 rounds of bullet's for one man? You say the man was kicked out of the bar plus he was peppered sprayed and I'm sure intoxicated on top of it and you expect him to drive home? Wouldn't you agree the bar should take reasonability for the death of this man, after all, they served him while he was in the bar. I call it overkill and totally preventable. What a sad conclusion to think it may happen to another person. I hope the family files a civil lawsuit against the bar and let's see if shooting 22 bullets was justifiable for one man.
tried to run them down with his fucking truck. If I was about to get taken out by an Expedition, I'd keep firing too. The only sad conclusion would have been if that asshole succeeded in running over a bunch of innocent bystanders
April 22nd, 2011 at 10:55 PM ^
But why would he try to run them down like that, it makes you wonder, what happened inside?
April 22nd, 2011 at 11:26 PM ^
It doesn't matter one bit what happened inside. There is no justification for trying to run people down with your car.
Did the police take possession of your firearm? What happened to the guy who did the shooting? Is he still working there? That place needs to close down as well as all clubs like that. All they attract is the ghetto from Detroit and beyond. All the bouncers....oops sorry, security are ghetto. Bet you they are all African-American, too!
Wow mgoblog is pretty awesome. We have a witness account from a neighbor, a response from an EMT on the scene, and now a response from one of the men doing the shooting. We got Detroit covered. Either that or somebody is embellishing their role in all of this.
Somebody on here had to be the shooter on the grassy knoll.
Too soon
Free the West Memphis Three!
@Chippiwa:
Not wholly true at all stop buying into the crap excuses people make for the state of the city. Even before the 67 riots and "white flight" the city was plummeting like a meteor. Unemployment was rising, crime was rising, inefficiency in the polce department and police abuses were rising, the last time the city wasn't operating under a deficit was the year 1959, urban blight and bad infrastructure was ALREADY becoming a problem in the "core" of detroit (Downtown, Corktown, Cass Corridor/WSU, Grand River upto 94, the industrial waterfront etc etc). Not just whites left Detroit, most blacks of means have left as well. The term that became popular in the late 40's of Detroit being, "the paradise of the middle class" had lost much of it's meaning by the time the 60's rolled around.
Most people didn't leave Detroit because of "racial issues". There had been a large black, and mostly poor, population in Detroit since the end of World War I. People left because of the problems I listed above. The riots only accelerated issues that had been afflicting the city for quite some time.
A lot of people don't realize that people have been moving in large numbers out of Detroit for many, many years. For a time (in the mid-20th century) this was offset by large numbers of Southerners (both white and black) moving in. What really changed from the 1970s onward was that the migration from the South stopped, which made the flight out of the city much more noticeable. Detroit's been a terribly-run city for a long time, and its leaders have resorted to cheap excuses and race baiting to explain its problems, instead of taking a look in the mirror and thinking about whether their policies (including focusing almost exclusively on the riverfront at the expense of the neighborhoods) have made sense.
I would argue that racism has been a factor in the way the metro area became very segregated, but not in the way Chippewa is arguing. White people didn't leave Detroit just because there were black people there. They left because the city was falling apart. Where racism came into play was that racially-biased real estate practices kept black people trapped in Detroit (and Pontiac, Inkster and a couple other run-down suburbs) for a long time. Those finally broke down in the last 10-15 years and now the black exodus from Detroit is underway.
I know the guy that was shot at that club last night. I have known him for 13 years. I believe there is more to the story than what the arm gaurd said because he had his 2 boys with him and they would have tried to stop him from doing any of that. From what the gaurd said it does not even sound like anything that my friend would do. He had 3 young children. When I found out about this I thought it was a lie. This really hurts you know.
April 17th, 2011 at 12:35 AM ^
Ok seriously mods please lock this thread.
sorry for all that is in volved. .but I also live there.. I heard the shots and had my camera in hand..
Pictures the next day..
VIDEO.
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150148430867882&comments
this is about 2 minutes after the shooting..
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150148429982882&comments
sorry if it offends anyone.. .. dont look if you dont like..
you can see the response time in the video give or take 3-4 minutes. you can also see that the SUV is rammed into the building.