WARNING: The video included with this story shows a shooting victim moments after he was shot. View at your own discrepancy.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A man was transported to a Grand Rapids hospital with non-life threatening injuries after being shot in a parking lot on the southwest side of Grand Rapids late Tuesday afternoon.
The parking lot is located near the intersection of Grandville and Van Raalte.
Brian Oxford saw the scene unfold from his home on Van Raalte.
“I look out the window, seen a car start circling (the victim,)” he says. “The guy was trying to run away, but he couldn’t because the car was circling him. Just started shooting at him, man.”
“By the time I made it out here to him, he was holding himself,” Oxford says. “He said he was losing a lot of blood.”
Oxford had a video camera rolling as he approached and got footage of first responders and neighbors assisting the victim.
In the video, pressure is being applied to the victim’s abdominal area.
Grand Rapids Police say the man was hit with one of several shots that were fired.
Oxford describes the shooter as a tall, skinny black male. He says the car the suspect was driving was white – possibly a Nissan Maxima.
He says incidents like this one make violence a continuing concern in the area. The parking lot was home to the New Roosevelt Bar, which closed down earlier in 2013 after multiple reports of violence.
To Oxford, it’s obvious the bar wasn’t the problem.
“They said the drama was from the club,” he says, “but it really ain’t from the club.”
If you have any tips in this case, contact GRPD at 616.456.3400 or Silent Observer at 616.774.2345.
