One Dead, Six Hurt in Michigan Fireworks Fight

July 05--A Pontiac man was fatally shot and his children, ages 6 and 12, were injured after a physical altercation during a fireworks show Wednesday night outside a Pontiac party store ended with one man firing into the crowd, police said.

The Oakland County Sheriff's Office said deputies arrested a 35-year-old Pontiac man early today at his residence in the city.

The suspect "had been identified by numerous witnesses who were in the parking lot at the time of the shooting," said a news release from Oakland County Undersheriff Mike McCabe.

Gunshots also injured two Pontiac women, both 22, who were struck in the legs; a 28-year-old Pontiac man, shot once in the hip and forearm; and a 23-year-old Pontiac man, shot once in the leg, according to McCabe.

Deputies responded shortly after 11 p.m. to the parking lot of the Perry's Palace Liquor Store, 441 N. Perry, one-half mile northeast of downtown Pontiac, McCabe said in the release said. Before the incident, a crowd of several hundred people gathered to watch fireworks being sent skyward by store employees, according to the release.

After the dispute broke out, the suspect fired into the crowd, then fled on foot, and police arrived to find the victim, 33, lying on the ground at the edge of the parking lot with a gunshot wound to the head, the release said. He was pronounced dead at McLaren Oakland Hospital in Pontiac,

The victim's 6-year-old son suffered a non-life-threatening gunshot wound to the head and was transported to Children's Hospital in Detroit, where he was in stable condition this morning, McCabe said. The boy's 12-year-old sister was treated and released from McLaren Hospital for an injury to her forearm from an unknown cause, he said. The adults who were shot were treated and release, except for the 23-year-old man with a leg wound, who was still hospitalized as of this morning, McCabe said.

Police were reviewing the store's security cameras as part of the investigation, he said.

In response to a reporter's call about the shootings, an employee who answered at the party store today said, "We know nothing about it."

He said store employees were not involved, then he hung up.

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