Four shot to death in Detroit dope house
DETROIT — Two adults and two children were fatally shot as they slept Thursday in a home known for drug activity, renewing pleas for community members to take more responsibility in the fight against violence.
Police were questioning someone found with the adult male victim’s vehicle, which they think the shooter took, Sgt. Eren Stephens Bell said. Police did not discuss a possible motive.
Officers found no signs of forced entry after getting the call around 3:30 a.m., and the doors and windows of the two-story brick bungalow were reinforced with two-by-fours and locks, Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings said. The bodies of the children were found in one room, police said, while the bodies of the adults were in another.
Police have responded to the house in the past on reports of shots fired and narcotics complaints, Bully-Cummings said. A gun was not found at the scene, but casings from a high-powered weapon were recovered, she said.
“I’m tired of seeing our children die,” the chief said. “We as adults have a responsibility to our children to allow them to grow up as adults in a safe environment, and we’re failing them.”
Pandora Eppinger said her niece, 9-year-old Alexus Eppinger, and nephew, 5-year-old Terrence Eppinger Jr., were killed.
“It’s scary out here. You can’t go out anywhere and feel safe,” Eppinger said.
“They were just little, sweet kids,” she said. “Why would they do that?”
The children’s mother, Lynnette Lawson, 28, and Jason Davis, 34, also died, according to the Wayne County medical examiner’s office and relatives who gathered in the morning rain near the home. The boy died of a gunshot wound to the abdomen, and the others were shot multiple times at close range, according to the medical examiner’s office.
Georgia Davis, 53, said her son, Jason, had been dating Lawson recently.
“Why would someone kill those kids?” she said. “They’re crazy.”
Bully-Cummings, speaking to reporters on the street just hours after the shootings, reiterated a plea for Detroiters to take responsibility for the community, one she has made repeatedly since taking the job in 2003.
In 2004, she and other officials joined a coalition of ministers in prayer as they called on residents to join them in ending a culture of violence in the city. But the killings have continued.
The four were killed a day after a man and woman were convicted of murdering two boys who were shot in a ransacked Detroit apartment in February. Authorities say they planned to kidnap the boys’ cousin and rob him of cocaine and cash.
Three additional suspects are awaiting trial. A sixth suspect pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.
In September, police said four people were killed in a shooting at a home where a large amount of illegal drugs were found. The county prosecutor’s office said a man is facing four murder charges.
Deondrey Peterson, 33, lives near the scene of Thursday’s killings and said he wants to move out of Detroit because of such violence.
“It’s ridiculous. It’s senseless,” Peterson said. “My main concern is the kids. … How are we going to have a future?”
Fambly ob da victims
White people should have left them to their
own devises and it’s not too late to send the
beast of the field back to the fields!
October 19th, 2007 at 10:12 am
I am a firm believer in “to-each-his-own” but come on????? This website is such a joke!!!! You people are so full of yourselves that you actually believe this garbage. It makes me laugh. Now don’t get me wrong, the crimes and lives lost on your post, those are very real and the people who committed such acts should be dealt with accordingly. But don’t for one minute think that only black and hispanic people are the ones committing unspeakable crimes. Trust me you people can commit crimes with the best of them. Or do your news channels and news papers omit the “whit crimes”? You can’t be that disillusioned! Further more, as you are digging up information on the “black man/cave man” theory, make sure you research where caucasians come from. At the end of the day no matter how much your ancestors tried to hide it we are all descendents from Mother Africa. Hate it or love it, this is the truth. There are tons and tons of scientific and other kinds of evidence to back this up. And please, I will save you all the embarressment of telling you how white people came about!!! The only thing you people are good at is lying, cheating, and covering up the truth. You unleash disease on whole nations so they can’t rise up and take back their rightful place as leaders of a nation it breathed life into, you have the nerve to put up boarders and try to keep out the unwanted but had no problem smashing down boundaries to come into a land and steel mothers away from their families, babies away from their homes, and don’t let me get started on the things you did to the black man to oppress and keep him down and out. The one thing you people never counted on was a few would break the mold you tried to create. You people had hopes that your dirty little secrets would be kept. Thank God I stand for something, so I will never fall for anything. Come on people, I know this way of thinking is not your fault, this is how you were raised because your fathers, and your fathers- fathers were raised like this. Think about it TRUTH AND KNOWLEDGE IS INFECTIOUS. Research were white people came from, don’t take my word for it. Don’t stop at the first post you come to keep on digging..why do you think that after years and years of oppression and being beat down the people that you guys hate keep on coming back and with a vengeance why do you think hate is taught to you people so early on in life and droned into your brains. THIS WOULD BE CALLED FEAR!!!! Your parents and grand parents know why………..Just except that we are all brothers and sisters. Seek out and ask God’s forgiveness before it is too late. No man shall enter the kingdom of God with hatred in his heart, no man shall enter the kingdom of God without being saved and washed in the blood of the Lamb. I will continue to pray for you people, and not just white racists but all racists. May God put an anointing to the reading of this word, may satan be rebuked from these minds and cast back to the pit of hell. I ask these things and all things in the name of the Lord….Amen