Lodge Freeway Shut Down For Hours After 'Road Rage' Shooting; 1 In Custody
DETROIT (WWJ) - One person is in custody following an incident police say involved road rage, a traffic crash and a shooting on the Lodge freeway Tuesday evening.
Michigan State Police Lt. Mike Shaw said investigators were struggling to make sense of the series of events, which unfolded at around 6:15 p.m. on the southbound side of the freeway near 7 Mile Road in Detroit.
"We started receiving 911 calls about an individual standing in the freeway, possibly armed with a handgun," Shaw said. "When our troopers arrived in scene, they did locate what looked like a traffic crash that had occurred and they also located this individual that the witnesses were describing."
"The officers were able to take him down at gunpoint and take him into custody without any issue."
Shaw said further investigation revealed that the suspect had been involved in some sort of road rage incident with a woman that also involved a traffic crash.
The woman — a 66-year-old Southfield resident — was injured, Shaw said, but it wasn't immediately clear if she was hurt in the crash or if she'd been assaulted by the suspect. She was not wearing a seatbelt.
Shaw said police believe a Good Samaritan was shot at when he stopped to help the woman.
"The suspect fired one round at this individual. The individual ran and we're hoping that he's going to contact us," Shaw said. "We're concerned — first of all we want to make sure he wasn't hit, and second of all we just want to get his side of the story, because it appears that he did make contact with our suspect."
He said police recovered a number of weapons, including handguns and long guns, that the suspect had in the trunk of his car.
"Also some other items out of there that we're kind of trying to figure out now exactly where they play in this and where he was going," Shaw said.
A K-9 team was searching the scene for additional bullet casings.
Slowing the investigation, he said, was that police were having a difficult time communicating with the suspect, who may have some "mental health issues." The woman involved was pretty shaken up, Shaw said, and was also having trouble relating her story to police.
Shaw said this was a random situation, in so far as none of the three people involved knew each other prior to Tuesday evening.
At 9 p.m., M-10, the Lodge, remained shut down at 7 Mile Road in Detroit, but Shaw said they're hoping to have the freeway reopened shortly. Motorists were being asked to avoid the area.
For the latest from the roads, stay with WWJ Newsradio 950 during Traffic and Weather on the 8s, 24-hours a day. Check for recent incidents now on the CBS Detroit Traffic Page.
