Police investigate ambush shooting
Police say it’s a ‘miracle’ woman wasn’t killed
Sterling Heights police are investigating an incident Saturday in which a man fired several shots at a woman who was in her vehicle in a condominium complex parking lot.
The victim was struck twice by bullets in the latemorning shooting at Park Place Condominiums located south of Metropolitan Parkway between Ryan and Dequindre roads, according to Sterling Heights police Lt. Mario Bastianelli. She is recovering in a hospital from non-life threatening injuries, he said.
Bastianelli said the woman is fortunate to survive.
“It’s a miracle she wasn’t killed,” he said.
He said her ability to flee the area in her vehicle and return to the residence from which she exited “probably saved her life.”
Police said on its Facebook post Monday night: “The Sterling Heights police are utilizing every resource to capture this suspect in this shooting.”
Bastianelli said the suspect “was obviously purposefully targeting that female.”
Police provided explicit security video of the incident in its post.
The culprit, a black male, is shown lying in wait in a light colored pickup truck that was parked on the other side of the lot from the target’s SUV, according to the video.
When the victim begins to pull out of the spot in reverse, the driver of the pickup truck, which had been facing the victim’s vehicle, pulls behind the SUV to block it. The suspect exits the truck, raises a handgun and fires four shots toward the driver side of the SUV, according to the video. As the SUV pulls away, the suspect fires four more shots.
The pickup truck moves in reverse as it follows the SUV.
Seconds later, the victim pulls the SUV on to the front lawn of the residence, exits and runs inside.
The suspect drives his truck up to the front of the house, exits but re-enters the vehicle and drives away.
During the incident, a woman is on the porch of the residence watching the victim and begins to approach the scene and screams and goes back to the porch as shots are fired, the video shows. After the victim arrives back, the witness goes back into the residence with the targeted woman.
Additional descriptive information about the suspect was unavailable.
Anyone with information should call Sterling Heights police Detective Tim St. Onge at 586-446-2866.