BYRON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — The two men who said they were shot while driving along US-131 near Grand Rapids were targeted, Michigan State Police say.
“Detectives … believe that the shooting was not a random shooting incident and that it was a targeted shooting,” MSP Lt. Michelle Robinson said Thursday. “We have not identified who the suspect is, but we do believe that there is a connection between the suspects and the victims.”
She would not say what led investigators to that conclusion.
The shooting happened around 7 p.m. Wednesday on northbound US-131 between 84th and 68th streets in Byron Township. MSP said the two men reported they were driving along when they were shot by someone in another northbound vehicle. The shots blew out the driver’s side window of the victims’ Dodge Magnum.
The driver pulled off the highway and into the Marathon gas station on 68th Street SW. There, the victims called 911.
Gas station surveillance video released to News 8 Thursday shows the two men taking stock of their injuries. The driver checked under the passenger’s sweatshirt hood, where it appears he was hit. Later, the passenger appeared to use his phone to take a photo of the injury.
The video also shows the trail of blood they left. Some of that blood was still on the pavement outside the front door Thursday.
As they waited for EMTs, customers came and went.
The men were hospitalized. Their conditions were not known Thursday.
It’s unclear whether they are cooperating with MSP’s investigation.
“They (the victims) have not disclosed exactly who the individual is,” Robinson said. “We don’t know if it was one, multiple; we don’t know at this point in time.”
MSP asked anyone who may have seen the shooting or who saw anything suspicious to call 911 or the Grand Rapids Post at 616.866.4411.
—News 8’s Ken Kolker contributed to this report.