A 13-year-old girl — the only survivor of a shooting rampage in rural Michigan — called 911 on Friday after she was shot four times, state police official and her family said Saturday.
The girl was found in a home in Lake Township, in Missaukee County, where three other people were found dead when police arrived around 11:40 a.m. Friday.
The suspected gunman, Chad Hickman, 39, is believed to have killed five people across three locations. He was later found dead next to one of the victims in a wooded area after police launched a manhunt for him.
The girl was taken to a hospital in critical condition but was stable by Saturday, police said.
She “called 911 to report that she had been shot,” state police spokesperson Lt. Ashley Miller said. The suspect had fled before officers arrived, but investigators had no doubt about his identity, Miller said.
“We were able to identify him right away,” she said, declining to say how.
Police had not released the names or relationships of the shooter and victims as of Saturday.
A relative identified two of those killed on Facebook as Amanda Everitt, 40, and her 16-year-old son Eric. David Everitt, Amanda’s father and Eric’s grandfather, wrote that “this world just lost two beautiful people and one is clinging to life.”
Everitt wrote that the wounded girl was a hero “who while shot 4 times still managed to call 911 and identify the shooter.”
At the first home, officers found a 45-year-old man, a 40-year-old woman and 16-year-old boy dead, along with the 13-year-old who had called 911, state police said. At a second home in Missaukee County, they found a 53-year-old man dead.
The suspect was later found dead in a wooded area near Whitlock Lake, along with the body of a 29-year-old woman, state police said. Miller said investigators cannot yet say whether the suspect killed himself, pending an autopsy.
The investigation, including into a possible motive, was ongoing Saturday.
Missaukee County, a rural area in northern Michigan, has a population of around 15,000.
“This is a very small community, and this type of incident — and it obviously has rocked and crushed that community at this point,” Miller said. “They’re looking for answers, and they want to know why.”
