DETROIT (WWJ) – A Detroit family is heartbroken after a 5-year-old boy was among the victims of a triple homicide discovered by police on Sunday afternoon on the city’s west side.
Officers responded to a home in the 15000 block of Evergreen after receiving a 911 call from a family member who hadn’t heard from the victims in about a week. The family member found the home’s backdoor was open and police suspect it had been kicked in.
Inside the home, they found a woman and her boyfriend shot to death. Police then discovered the woman’s 5-year-old son, Caleb, lying on his bedroom floor with multiple gunshot wounds. Detroit police had not yet publicly identified the adult victims, as of early Monday afternoon.
Caleb’s grandmother, Shalesa Floyd, is the cousin of Detroit School Board member and former City Councilwoman Sherry Gay-Dagnogo, now a candidate for U.S. Congress in Michigan’s 13th Congressional District.
They say Caleb was shot in the face multiple times.
Speaking exclusively to WWJ, Gay-Dagnogo says she’s just trying to comfort her family in the wake of utter devastation.
“Who would do this to Caleb? Who would shoot a baby in their face multiple times? She just wanted help to try and find who did this,” Gay-Dagnogo said.
Gay-Dagnogo told WWJ's Ryan Marshall that Detroit Police Chief James White reached out personally to the family and said the department "is committed to making sure that an arrest is made and that they're going to do everything in their power to find out who did this."
"This is not the type of individuals that we want walking the streets," she said.
“You have to be heartless. There’s one thing to try to even a score or have issues with an adult, but a child? A child is off limits," Gay-Dagnogo said. "I’m encouraging you to turn yourself in. This is unacceptable. My heart laments for the mindset of anybody who could do this to a child.”
Floyd says her entire family is devastated, including her son, Caleb’s father, who currently lives in another state.
“I want to hug my son and he’s devastated because he wasn’t there to protect him. I just want justice for my grandson,” Floyd said. “I just want to know who did this.”
“Why would you do this?” she asked
That’s the question on everybody’s mind, including Detroit police, who on Sunday said the scene didn’t appear to be fresh, but they were not yet sure when the murders had taken place.
Investigators planned to get their hands on as much video evidence as they could, including from nearby Project Green Light cameras, to begin the search for a suspect.
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No possible motives in the case had been identified, as of Sunday evening.
Detroit police and family members are asking anyone who may know something about the triple homicide to step forward and help bring justice to the young boy, his mother and her boyfriend.
Detroit police had said Sunday night they expected to provide an update in the case on Monday. Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy is also planning a press conference Tuesday at 11 a.m., when she will give any new updates in the case.
Stay tuned to WWJ Newsradio 950 for the latest details on this developing story. >>> LISTEN LIVE!
