'Bullets Everywhere' as Birthday Party Turns Into Mass Shooting

Partygoers were celebrating a birthday at a Detroit home. Across the street, a neighbor, upset that his driveway was being blocked, was strategically placing 11 weapons around his own home. Then he opened fire, killing two partygoers and injuring six others, including at least one critically, according to Detroit Police, who responded to the mass shooting after 2:40am Sunday. Officers say the 30-something suspect with a military background opened fire using a "high-powered rifle." "Instead of contacting the police department … he decided to take matters into his own hands, engaging them and ultimately shooting up the home," Police Chief James White said at a Monday news conference, per CNN.

A woman who lives next-door to the suspect said he initially fired on the vehicle of a 39-year-old woman and a 38-year-old man who'd come to visit her children, after arguing with the pair about where they'd parked, per the Detroit Free Press. The pair—identified as Toyake Willams and Andre Willis Jr., per WJBK—attempted to drive themselves to the hospital but crashed and ultimately died. Sofhia Steen, who was hosting the birthday party for her sister across the street, said the shooter then returned to his home and began shooting toward her house from an awning. "It's blood everywhere. It's bullets everywhere," Steen, 34, told the Free Press. She said two of her cousins were shot in the face and her 19-year-old nephew was shot while pushing her to the ground.

Police believe the suspect suffers from mental illness, per the Free Press. He surrendered to officers, who "responded in record time," according to White. During a search, officers recovered 11 weapons which had been "strategically placed throughout the home so as he moved through the home, he would have access to these weapons," White said. He noted the shooting came on a particularly bloody weekend, with seven homicides and 24 nonfatal shootings in the city. "This country's obsession with weapons and mass shootings—this is unacceptable, and we can do better and we have to do better," he said. There have been at least 387 mass shootings in the US this year, per Gun Violence Archive. (More mass shootings stories.)