The 42-year-old gunman behind the shooting at a splash pad in Rochester Hills, Michigan, which injured nine people has been identified as Michael William Nash, the Oakland County Sheriff's Office announced on Sunday morning. The shooting took place at 5 pm on Saturday at the Brooklands Plaza Splash Pad, where Nash fired 28 rounds at the families present.
Nash then fled to a nearby home within half a mile of the splash pad, leading to a tense hours-long standoff. The standoff concluded when the shooter, described as a 42-year-old white male who lived with his mother, died by suicide. One of the victims of the shooting is an 8-year-old boy.
Maniac Whop May Have Planned More Shootings
In an impromptu update, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard told reporters that Nash had no criminal history but was believed to have mental health issues. Among the nine people injured were three members of the same family.
An eight-year-old boy, who was shot in the head, remains in critical condition. A four-year-old boy, wounded in the thigh, is in stable condition.
The third family member, a 39-year-old woman, was shot in the abdomen and leg and is still in critical condition, according to the sheriff.
The oldest victim was a 78-year-old man who was shot in the abdomen and is currently in stable condition.
Detectives are still investigating Nash's possible motive, as no connection between him and the victims has been found yet. In an earlier press conference, Bouchard stated that the shooting "appears very random."
"It appears like the individual pulled up, exited a vehicle, approached the splash pad, opened fire, reloaded, opened fire, reloaded, left," Bouchard said.
Police found a Glock 9mm handgun and three magazines at the scene.
After the splash pad attack, Nash died by suicide in a Shelby Township home following a long standoff with police.
Sheriff Bouchard explained that his department made numerous unsuccessful attempts to contact Nash before deploying drones to inspect the home, where they found Nash dead.
Motive Unclear, Weapons Found at Home
Disturbingly, a semi-automatic weapon was found on the kitchen table inside the home where Nash had barricaded himself. Bouchard suggested that Nash might have been planning a "second chapter."
"It's a gut-punch," Bouchard said at an earlier press conference. "We're not fully comprehending what happened at Oxford and now we have another complete tragedy that we're dealing with."
Rochester Hills is located about 15 miles south of Oxford, where 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley fatally shot four students at his high school in 2021. Last year, Crumbley was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Authorities who responded to the splash pad mass shooting described terrifying scenes of people fleeing as bullets flew. They reported seeing blood-covered ice cream cones and flip-flops.
Thanks to a new 911 response system that allows officers to listen to 911 calls live, the police arrived in just under two minutes. This swift response helped prevent further chaos, especially since Nash had a semi-automatic rifle in his possession.
The city-operated splash pad, situated on Auburn Road, is located between a T-Mobile store and Mozzarella's pizzeria, just west of the plaza. Rochester Hills is approximately 25 miles north of Detroit and has a population of around 76,000 people.
