Police identify persons of interest in Aug. 31 shooting

Belleville police have obtained nine search warrants in the ongoing investigation into the shooting of two people in the city’s downtown at about 11 p.m., Aug. 31.
Sgt. Todd Schrecengost is filling in for Acting Police Chief Kris Faull as she recovers from surgery.
“Acting/Acting” Police Chief Schrecengost said police have identified several persons of interest in the case. He said his department is working with police from Detroit, Inkster, Ecorse, and the Michigan State Police.
They have examined the suspect and victim vehicles and have processed fingerprints.
Chief Schrecengost said police have determined that the shooting on Main Street is not related to the city of Belleville, the football game at the high school that evening, or Egan’s Pub which was filled with revelers that evening.
He said they have learned that the man and woman who were shot had issues in Detroit and so moved elsewhere and this was a targeted attack.
The Dodge Charger SXT was shot multiple times, wounding the male driver and female passenger, but missing the two-year-old girl and infant in the back seat. After the shooting the car careened into a building at the corner of Main Street and Fourth Street Place. The wounded were taken to a local hospital.
That evening, Van Buren Township police had alerted Belleville police that a stolen Jeep was coming into the city after the Jeep got off the I-94 freeway and dinged the township’s camera that identifies wanted vehicles.
A city police officer located the Jeep on E. Huron River Drive and chased it to Haggerty Road, where it reentered the freeway and raced to Inkster with police in pursuit. Three occupants ditched the car with an AR-15 in the back seat near an apartment complex in Inkster and disappeared.
Reportedly, police pursuing the Jeep heard about the Belleville shooting enroute and presumed they were following the shooter.
Chief Schrecengost said the city police department has seven people on the street, but it needs to hire an officer to fill a vacancy immediately. He said candidates submitted applications for the position after the council recently passed a policy to offer top pay for an applicant’s experience.
With Acting Chief Faull out of the office and Officer Sarah Dzagulones on light duty, schedules are tight. They have to plan for Officer Bart Devos’ spring retirement, as well, he said.