DEARBORN HEIGHTS, Mich. – The family of the gunman in a Dearborn Heights fatal shooting said the victims were related to him.
Family members said the suspect killed his mother and sister before dying in a police standoff.
It all unfolded Saturday afternoon at the Cherry Hill Village Apartment Complex near Cherry Hill and Inkster roads.
Hours later, Rose Deering is still trying to process the untimely death of her sister, Hazel Walker, her niece Dani Walker and her nephew Donny Walker. It happened just moments after what would become her final conversation with her sibling.
“Dani was my heart. Hazel was such a good mother,” Deering said. “I spoke with her earlier and she was telling me that he was acting up. She let me listen on the phone and he was talking out loud. I said, ’We’ll just get dressed. Get your daughter and leave and go sit in the car.’”
Her nephew, Donny Walker, is believed to have had mental issues and is accused of firing an automatic riffle, killing his mother and sister before threatening the lives of others from the balcony.
Patches McCollough was one of the last people to see Donny alive. He tried to convince him to put the gun down before he was killed in a brief standoff with police.
It’s a triple-tragedy loved ones are going to have a hard time digesting over time.
“I’m just sitting here cause I don’t want to leave because I known this will be the last time that I come over here to see them,” Deering said. “Mental illness is real. Don’t ever think it’s not.”
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