DETROIT (WXYZ) - A suspect in Tuesday's bus stop shootings on Detroit's west side has turned himself in to police. Officers are searching for at least one other suspect.
WATCH ANU PRAKASH'S REPORT IN THE VIDEO PLAYER ON THE RIGHTJamel Turner, 18, was in police custody but his arrest warrant had not been filed by Wednesday afternoon. Detroit Police Chief James Barren told reporters that Turner was identified as a suspect after investigators spoke with victims of Tuesday's shooting and another person with knowledge of the incident.
A message left Wednesday with Turner's attorney, David Jones, was not immediately returned.
Police released a surveillance video from a nearby gas station on Wednesday that showed the two gunmen with what appears to be shirts covering their faces. They can be seen running past vehicles in the station's lot with guns pointed at the group of teenagers.
The video had no audio but did show the teens waiting at the bus stop suddenly scatter. One teen, who appeared to have been shot, can be seen trying to crawl away after crumpling to the pavement.
The video then showed the gunmen running back the way they came.
Investigators believe multiple shots were fired from semiautomatic handguns at the group of seven teens waiting at a public bus stop shortly after summer classes let out at nearby Cody Ninth Grade Academy. Police said a third suspect waited in a nearby green minivan to drive them away.
Five of the seven victims were students. At least three of the seven remained hospitalized Wednesday but none has life-threatening injuries, Deputy Police Chief James Tolbert said. He said police are still looking for the other two suspects.
Police do not have a motive in the shooting, but said it may be related to gang activity. Tolbert said investigators have little information about the second gunman, but that he and the person driving the minivan are being sought.
Tolbert said the community has to "get our youth to understand that conflict resolution isn't picking up a gun. Whatever the issue was, it couldn't have been that serious to pick up a gun and start firing indiscriminately at children standing at a bus stop."
Police believe the gunmen were targeting at least one person among the group's four males and three females, who range in age from 14 to 17, before firing several shots, police spokesman Rod Liggons said.
Creating a safe environment inside and around city schools has been a focus of Detroit Public Schools emergency financial manager Robert Bobb, who took over the financially strapped district's finances in March.
The police department, school district and mayor's office are trying to increase student safety by, among several other things, tearing down vacant properties along school routes, cutting tall grass and removing abandoned vehicles, Bobb said.
He said uniformed school officers were inside district buildings Wednesday, and indicated that others were patrolling outside.
"While you may not see a police officer in uniform, it does not mean that there aren't police officers on the scene," Bobb said.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said Wednesday that she doesn't understand why it takes a crisis of this magnitude "in this community for people to get outraged."
"Is one child shot enough? Apparently not. That happens frequently in Detroit and in other places in Wayne County. We see a child shot down on the news and we take another bite of our cereal. We are that immune to violence in this town," she wrote in a three page statement Wednesday.
Worthy said her office was to meet Wednesday with county officials about a school and gang violence proposal she submitted two years ago to the Wayne County Commission. The plan has been mothballed because funds weren't available, she said.
"We as a community and city cannot tolerate these senseless and unjustifiable acts of gun violence," Mayor Dave Bing said in a statement. "It is the role and responsibility of everyone - government, police, and (the) community at-large to do whatever is necessary to end this foolishness."
Meanwhile, Bobb has told parents of five of the wounded students that their summer studies will not be interrupted.
He met Tuesday evening with the families at two area hospitals and told them educational materials and "any other arrangements necessary" will be made available for their homes, schools spokesman Steve Wasko said Wednesday.
Tuesday's shooting is at least the second in or near a Detroit school this year and the third within the past eight months.
A 17-year-old non-student was charged in February with assault with intent to murder in a shooting at Central High School. Two other non-students were shot in the school's hallway following an earlier altercation.
A 16-year-old Henry Ford student was shot to death and two other students wounded Oct. 20 outside that high school. That shooting followed a fight inside the school.
Two 18-year-olds and a 15-year-old have been charged with murder in that case.
