Couple with 2 young kids, 8-year-old among victims of Rochester Hills shooting
Editor's note: References to a GoFundMe page for the family of Kyle Thompson, which The Detroit News had verified with the crowdfunding platform, have been removed after the Sheriff's Office said the account is fraudulent.
Rochester Hills — Charity Litmore doesn't know the victims of Saturday's mass shooting at a splash pad in the city, is not a member of the community or the church that held a Sunday vigil for the victims, but she longed to make sense of the tragedy and create a sense of community in its wake.
‘The only connection I have is I feel horrified that this has happened," said Litmore, 29, of Troy. “I just wanted a place to express my grief with others.”
The 5 p.m. prayer vigil held for the nine shooting victims brought an overflowing crowd to Troy’s Woodside Bible Church, where an estimated 150-200 people attended. It capped a day when the now-dead gunman was identified as Michael William Nash of Shelby Township, four of the victims were identified, and other area residents and officials condemned the attack.
Caleb Holm, 22, of Rochester Hills said he and his parents rushed Saturday to a restaurant near the shooting because his sister was working as a waitress there.
“She texted us, and, at this point, the shooter was still not caught,” Holm said. He said his father sat with Holm and his wife in the booth “for a long time."
“We kind of talked about it, like others in the restaurant,” said Holm, referring to the shooting. “But we kind of didn’t know what to say or do,” beyond waiting for his sister to finish her shift so they could leave together.
Among the nine wounded victims were a Rochester Hills couple with two young children shot at the splash pad, according to a GoFundMe set up by a friend of the family.
Micayla and Eric Coughlin had just arrived at the splash pad with their two children, ages 2 and 7 months, when they heard gunfire, according to the GoFundMe. They each grabbed a child to protect them and were shot seven times in all, the fundraiser page said.
The Detroit News confirmed the authenticity of the fundraiser with GoFundMe.
They were shot Saturday after a gunman got out of a vehicle and unloaded 28 gunshots from a handgun in what Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard called a “random” act at the Brooklands Plaza Splash Pad in Rochester Hills. All nine remain alive, Oakland County Executive Dave Coulter said at a Sunday morning press conference.
"Yesterday's horrific shooting of nine people, including two young boys, at a splash pad in Rochester Hills is just another appalling example of senseless violence," Coulter said. "Unfortunately, in my five years, I've been county executive, this is now the second mass shooting. We're all too good at this, and I'm disgusted by it."
In November 2021, Four Oxford High School students were killed and six others and a teacher were injured in a mass shooting by a student.
Sheriff's deputies found the 42-year-old Nash dead Saturday night at a home in Shelby Township after police breached the home with a drone, Bouchard said. He is believed to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
More on victims
Rochester Hills Mayor Bryan Barnett said one of the victims is the wife of a city employee. She was there with 14 family members and friends, three of whom were hit by bullets, he said. She has a broken arm and a bullet wound in her abdomen, Barnett said at the Sunday press conference.
“(When I talked to her husband) he was in shock, but he was grateful his family was OK and is focused on supporting them,” Barnett said.
More:Splash pad gunman's neighbors fear they were next, call him 'a loner'
The victims include a 4-year-old boy, an 8-year-old boy and a 39-year-old woman, all of whom are from one family, Bouchard said. The 8-year-old was shot in the head and was in critical condition, and the 4-year-old boy was shot in the thigh but was stable, he said. The woman was shot in the abdomen and legs and was in critical condition.
A 78-year-old man and a husband and wife were also shot, Bouchard said.
A second GoFundMe page set up by someone who claimed to be the husband and father of a victim is not legitimate, according to the Oakland County Sheriff's Office. Sheriff Michael Bouchard said those posing as victims or on behalf of victims were "bottom-feeding scumbags" preying on the tragedy. He said the Sheriff's Office has not confirmed any GoFundMe efforts yet, and that the family of the man on the page were not victims of the splash pad shootings.
Residents have second thoughts
The splash pad remained closed Sunday morning and a team of people in hazmat suits scrubbed blood from the ground. The surrounding streets remained closed off as they worked, surrounded by crime scene tape.
"This has become all too common in this country," Coulter said. "We’ve got to get a lot better at prevention because we’ve gotten too damn good at responding."
Barnett said he got home at about 2 a.m. Sunday and was going through emails because he couldn't sleep. He saw someone had sent him a 198-page playbook about how to deal with the aftermath of a mass shooting, filled with the things that he wouldn't have thought about.
"I can only describe the last 24 hours as a nightmare," Barnett said. "I never thought I'd see my city in the same sentence as some of the other cities who have experienced mass shootings.
Some residents on Emmons and Culbertson avenues thought they heard hammering and fireworks until police cars and sirens followed Saturday night. The small splash park that is east of Culbertson Avenue and on the north side of Auburn Road just opened last month for families for water recreation through the end of September.
Mike and Kathy Gasior of Rochester Hills were at a wedding Saturday when they got the news of the mass shooting in their neighborhood. The couple rode bikes on Culbertson Avenue on Sunday morning and thought about how they often bring their 1-year-old and 3-year-old grandchildren to the splash pad to look at the water and watch kids play.
Kathy Gasior, 63, felt guilty that she recommended the park last week to her adult children.
"It's haunting. And nothing happened to them, nothing happened to us, and we were not here when this happened, but Rochester Hills was dubbed the safest small city," Gasior said, referring to a report from Front Point Security in 2019. "We've only lived here five years. ... It is so surreal because ... you never think it's going to happen to you and now here it is in right down in my own neighborhood."
Gasior said the area is always busy with people buying ice cream or clothes shopping on Auburn Road.
"Now what do you do?" she said. "Do you go back there? It gives me the creeps now. ... This was meant for children."
Mike Gasior, 64, said: "We feel awful for the families. I'm very angry. Why would somebody come and do that to our neighborhood?'"
Michelle Waring, 29, lives on Culbertson Avenue with her 3-year-old son, Magnus, and dog. They go to the splash pad two to three times a week.
"I was really upset last night. I mostly feel like the closer and closer these mass shootings get to you personally ... the more hopeless it seems. It's pretty unfortunate. I don't even want to send him (Magnus) to school," Waring said. "You can't even do the daily family things like go to a park.
"It's a very safe area. On the weekends, that splash pad gets packed with like 50 to 70 people," she added.
The mother and son said they've felt safe living on Culbertson Avenue for the past two years, but now Waring is considering homeschooling Magnus.
Josie Worden, 16, just moved on Emmons Avenue with her father at the beginning of the year. The Rochester High School student said hearing the gunshots made her reflect back to the Oxford High mass shooting.
Mental health aid available
In the wake of the shooting, licensed mental health professionals are available at the Department of Public Services building at 511 E. Auburn Road to help anyone seeking counseling and to help connect people to further mental health resources, said Adam Hamilton, the clinical director at the Oakland Community Health Network.
Anyone who cannot attend grief counseling can call (800) 848-5533 between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday to talk to the county health division's on-call nurse.
More:'Bittersweet': Metro Detroiters march for gun violence victims between Saturday shootings
Hamilton said the county would send tips about how to talk to family and children about the shooting. He advised parents to listen to their children and to watch for behavior changes that may indicate concern.
"I think we recognize now, probably more than ever, that the impact of these things can be traumatizing even for people not a direct participant or directly involved in the event," Hamilton said. "Rochester is a wonderful community, right, so to even begin to process the impact of something like this happening in a place where you've always felt safe, felt comfortable to go can be very destabilizing."