YPSILANTI TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Police have arrested two men after an Ypsilanti Township neighborhood was terrorized by four drive-by shootings in the last week.
“It’s like Saigon out here the last five days,” said resident Michael Berryhill, who has lived on Foley Street for nearly a decade.
Berryhill gave Local 4 a guided tour of the many bullet holes covering his car and home. He said gunmen shot at his house and his 19-year-old son.
Many of his neighbors were too afraid to go on camera.
“The second I went downstairs to go to my room was when I heard at least 20 shots,” one resident said. “We all hit the deck and were not messing around with it.”
Officials said there were four separate shootings on three different nights.
“All I know is, social media is bad,” one resident said.
The Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office put out a press release all but apologizing for the violence. Spokesman Derrick Jackson said the violence stems from an Ypsilanti shooting in July 2019. Andre Smith, 22, was shot and killed.
Police believe the recent shootings are a kind of payback, and the department is sympathetic to the neighborhood’s plight.
“We understand that the community is really struggling with this violence and there have been some good neighbors who have tried to help us who call in when things are suspicious,” Jackson said.
The two men who were taken into custody are expected to be arraigned this weekend, officials said. But there’s still concern the shootings go deeper than those men, so police are still watching closely.
Berryhill and his neighbors are looking for another place to live because of the violence.