Lake City — With sunny skies and temperatures in the low 80s, Saturday seemed like a picture-perfect day in Lake City, a quiet town of about 700 permanent residents situated on Lake Missaukee, nestled in a heavily forested area with numerous campgrounds and public lands.
But figuratively, a dark cloud hung over the small town in western Missaukee County. In three locations, each just a few miles down the road, law enforcement found a total of six people dead, including the suspected gunman.
Lifelong Lake City resident Tyler Chaffee was working Saturday afternoon at the local American Legion Hall. The place was empty, but he said later in the day it will fill up with locals who will almost certainly be discussing Friday’s tragedy.
“It’s a really close community, and we all know each other. … All the families are really close. All the business owners know everybody. Just first-name-basis community,” he said.
While he didn’t know any of the victims personally, he said he knows who they are, through friends and acquaintances. Plus, like seemingly everyone else in town, his social media feed has been flooded with constant updates about the incident.
“It’s just really shaking everybody up,” he said.
In the tiny, nearby community of Jennings, where a neighbor said suspected gunman Chad Hickman lived, a tent was erected Saturday at Jennings Community Church, where Pastor Ron Sischo and wife Pam Sischo were offering counseling for a tight-knit community in mourning.
“The community was obviously terrorized and traumatized by the situation,” said Pam Sischo. “So many in this community were intimately connected or related to the victims.”
Ron Sischo said that Hickman grew up just blocks from the church, so “everyone knew (his family) to some degree.”
“People are hurt and they’re scared still, so we want to offer hope,” he said.
The church is planning to hold a vigil on Sunday in memory of the victims. They are also working to raise funds for their families.
“We know this will evolve into funerals and a financial need,” Pam Sischo said.
‘What do we do now?’
Lake City’s population swells by a couple hundred people during the summer months with seasonal residents, according to Missaukee County data. While may more flock to the scenic town for long weekends and vacations.
Kyle Tucker, 43, and his family have enjoyed occasional trips to the city for more than a decade, the Clinton Township resident said.
“It’s a nice little town. … Never hear anything bad,” he said. “That’s why we make the three-hour drive north. This is the place … where you get away from all the chaos.”
But Friday’s shooting has him second-guessing that assessment.
“What do we do now? Do we stick to it?” he said.
Daphne Nelson, 53, was driving down LaChance Street Friday morning, near the site where Michigan State Police found the bodies of three shooting victims, plus a fourth victim in critical condition.
“All of the sudden I heard sirens … And then I see cop cars, like 25, and SWAT teams,” she said.
Nelson, a server at Hammer’s Pub and Grub, on Lake City’s main drag, said she, her co-workers and some customers had been talking about the incident all day Saturday. As she spoke to a Detroit News reporter, a TV overhead showed national news coverage of the killings.
“It’s just crazy. Shocking,” said Nelson, a lifelong resident of the area. “You just don’t expect it to happen close to you.”
mreinhart@detrointews.com
Detroit News photographer Katy Kildee contributed.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Missaukee County residents ‘terrorized and traumatized’ by killings
Reporting by Max Reinhart, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Max Reinhart, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
