This story has been updated with new information from police.
LANSING — A gunman walked up to an intersection near downtown Lansing on the night of Thursday, April 23 and fired into a crowd, sending six people to the hospital with gunshot wounds, police said Friday morning.
Police were called to the intersection of Chestnut and Hillsdale streets around 9:48 p.m. for a report of shots fired with possible victims, Police Chief Rob Backus said during a Friday morning news conference. The shooting victims ranged in age from 5 to 35, and all were expected to recover from their injuries.
Backus said the victims are a 35-year-old woman, 23-year-old woman, 21-year-old woman, a 31-year-old man and two girls, ages 14 and 5.
All were reported in stable condition with injuries that were primarily to the lower extremities, although one person suffered a grazing wound to the ear, police said.
The Lansing Fire Department took three people to the hospital, the police department transported one of the victims and two other victims later showed up at a hospital, police said.
Backus said the department will increase its focus on that intersection where people gathered, adding that as of Friday morning police didn’t know why the group had gathered and didn’t have information on a potential motive.
No arrests have been made.
In additional to the police and fire departments, Backus said that Michigan State Police troopers responded to the scene, along with members of Advance Peace, a community violence intervention organization that works to prevent retaliatory shootings.
Backus and Mayor Andy Schor were joined at the news conference by Michael McKissic of the Mickey 23 Foundation and Michael Lynn Jr. of the Lansing Empowerment Network, two additional community organizations that work to address gun violence.
Lynn and McKissic stressed the important of community resources and involvement to combat what McKissic called the “this disease we call gun violence.”
The shooting happened in the area is on the edge of downtown, between the state Capitol and Interstate 496, about three blocks west of Capitol Avenue.
Police held the press conference more than 12 hours after the shooting occurred. Previously, police had only said “multiple people’ had been shot.
Lansing Police Public Relations Director Jordan Gulkis said it was not clear to police whether another shooting in that same area a day earlier in which no one was injured was related.
Check back for updates.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: 6 shot in Lansing mass shooting, including 2 children. Shooter sought
Reporting by Dan Basso and Matt Mencarini, Lansing State Journal / Lansing State Journal
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