ANN ARBOR, Mich. – A teen is recovering after being shot at Gallup Park in Ann Arbor on Monday (May 9) night.
The shooting happened at the park off Geddes Road, he said a driver pulled up and shot him. Police said they believe the shooting was random.
About 80 students from Huron High School were playing a game where they used GPS locations on their phones to play a sort of hide-and-seek water balloon fight game.
Zachary Mayrend, 18, was at the park and searching for another player when he was shot.
“I think it was the wrong place, wrong time,” Mayrend said.
“We saw headlights on, so we figured maybe she was leaving,” Mayrend said.
It was getting late and dark, Mayrend walked up to look closer, but it wasn’t his classmate he had found. Instead, a man in the passenger seat of a car rolled down the window.
“He mumbled something that I wasn’t close enough to hear and just shot a few times in my general direction,” Mayrend said.
Mayrend thought it was a cap gun, but it wasn’t.
“I felt the blood rushing down my arm and onto my hand,” Mayrend said.
After realizing he had been shot, the eagle scout, who plans to become a nurse, knew exactly what to do.
Mayrend instructed his friend to call 911. Then he applied pressure to his wound and called his mom.
“He said, mom, don’t be mad, I’ve been shot,” said his mom, Tamara Mayrend.
Tamara Mayrend could hardly believe it what she had heard.
“Anyone of my friends could’ve had their kid shot or killed,” Tamara Mayrend.
The bullet caused a fracture in Zachary Mayrend’s arm, causing two of his fingers to become numb.
“Two inches in either direction, he could’ve lost his arm, bled out, could’ve been shot in the lung, heart,” Tamara Mayrend said.
Both mom and son want the person who did the shooting to be caught promptly.
“I don’t want anybody to have to get shot,” Zachary Mayrend said. “If you have any info, come forward because I’d love to know who hurt me.”
Police have not provided an update in their investigation, but they have asked for tips about the man in the passenger seat of the dark-colored car and the woman who was driving; they sped off after the shooting took place.
As for Zachary Mayrend, his mom says he is a helper, and he’s actually going to Africa after graduation to help build a school. He is just hoping he’ll regain full use of his arm.
Anyone with information should contact AAPD Detective Steven Van Alstine at 734-794-6930 x 49317 or via email at svanalstine@s2gov.org. Tips can also be called in at 734-794-6939.
