GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A woman was injured after she was hit by a bullet at a car meetup in southeast Grand Rapids late Sunday.
The Grand Rapids Police Department (GRPD) says around 1:30 a.m. on Sunday, they responded to calls of a "ruckus" near Steelcase at 36th Street SE and Eastern Avenue.
Over one hundred vehicles had gathered in a parking lot behind the Grand Rapids Commerce Center off 36th Street.
"It was a melee,” a business manager in the commerce center told FOX 17 Monday.
Police told FOX 17 over the weekend that they witnessed "100 to 200" cars doing burnouts, blocking streets and firing off rounds when they arrived.
Officers on scene claim there were groups of people from both Grand Rapids and Detroit on scene.
"They're staying one step ahead. I don't envy law enforcement at all," the business manager said.
"How do you keep up?"
There were two groups of people from Detroit and Grand Rapids, according to officers on scene.
GRPD says one adult female was injured by a bullet that went through one of the passenger windows and the headrest and grazed her.
Her injuries are non-life-threatening.
The business manager who spoke to FOX 17 says that Grand Rapids Police had one of their mobile camera units stationed in the lot until about a week and a half ago.
He said that the illicit meet ups had completely stopped while the parking lot was being monitored by the cameras.
After it was moved out of the lot, he says the meet ups started up again.
"We've also seen now fighting... it has started in the vein of, for those who remember Fight Club," he explained Monday.
"We've got a group of people... two men that are fist fighting, and the groups around them, you know, built a ring... and the drifting is still going on."
He worries that the conduct at the overnight meet ups will continue to escalate.
"My big concern for the young people is the safety factor," he said.
A car guy himself, he is optimistic that some day the group causing overnight chaos could turn to organizing safe events in the daylight.
FOX 17 previously spoke to the same business manager after a truck was set on fire in the commerce center lot in November 2023.
If you have any information about the shooting over the weekend, you are asked to contact the Grand Rapids Police Department at (616) 456-3400, or you can submit information completely anonymously via Silent Observer at (616) 774-2345.
