GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- A man from Kent County is dead after being shot in the chest while at a gathering at a business called Your Barbershop in Grand Rapids in the early hours of Dec. 21.
The victim has been identified as Nathan Moore, 28. So far, investigators haven't said whether they believe Moore was targeted.
Meanwhile, the search continues Sunday night for the person who pulled the trigger.
The barbershop’s lights and TV remained on as of Sunday evening, and cigarette butts litter the floor, but no one to be found inside the business.
Several families live behind the barbershop and say they are no strangers to the violence that occurs in the area, but they want it to stop.
"They need to stop,” said Caeryl Anderson, who lives just 100 feet from the site of the shooting. who’s been living in the neighborhood for 20 years. "We are raising kids out here. We don't need our young kids growing up doing the same thing they’re doing."
Anderson has been living in the neighborhood for 20 years, and she says bullets are keeping children from riding their bikes and playing with their toys in their own yards.
“I got two sons and they have been in there to get their hair cut, but I didn't know it was that kind of ‘bang-bang’ down there,” said Anderson.
The bang-bang Anderson is talking about is whereMoore was shot to death in the same place where you can get "the world's greatest hair cut."
“I’m taking care of my five-year-old grandbaby right now, and it's like I’m scared to stay in the neighborhood and have her outside playing,” said Anderson.
Anderson said living in the neighborhood wasn't always like this.
People living in the apartments above the barbershop said there were parties lasting until 6 a.m. thrown in the barbershop every weekend for the past couple months.
“What was he doing, partying or cutting hair?”
Fox 17 news talked to several families in the neighborhood who are trying to raise kids in a safe environment, but as of late, they say, it's anything but.
“We want them to go off to college, school, you know, and do better things like have a career,” said Anderson.
In September, three people were shot just a block away on Division Avenue and Hall Street SE. Police found 15 shell casings at the scene.
In October, a man was shot in the leg in the same area. Staff at the BP gas station in that block have told Fox 17 that they close an hour early because of the crime, but people still park in their parking lot and take part in illegal activity.
“We don't need that influence on our young ones,” Anderson said.
All these acts of violence make Anderson want to get up and go. “It's kind of hard for me to be here, you know?”
FOX 17 News tried to make contact with the owners of that business but didn't hear back.
Grand Rapids Police say they are working hard to find a suspect, but as of news time have not made an arrest.
Police are conducting interviews. Anyone with information should call Silent Observer at 616-774-2345.
