KALAMAZOO, Michigan — Two 19-year-old men were killed in two separate shootings in Kalamazoo within about 23 hours of each other this weekend, and a third man was wounded in another shooting in the city, in a weekend of gunfire that has left the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety (KDPS) running two homicide investigations at once. Police have released no suspect information in either killing, and the two men who died have not been publicly named.
Source: WKZO AM/FM
The second killing came in the early hours of Sunday, November 1. KDPS officers responded at about 1:20 a.m. to reports of shots fired in the 1300 block of Ravine Road, on the city's north side, WKZO reported, citing the department. The first officers to arrive found a 19-year-old man who had been struck by gunfire. He was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead, KDPS said.
KDPS released no suspect information in the Ravine Road case, and the department has not said what led up to the shooting or whether anyone else was hurt at that scene.
The first killing: West Michigan Avenue, early Saturday
The weekend's first fatal shooting came just after 2:30 a.m. on Saturday, October 31, in the 400 block of West Michigan Avenue, a main route through the city. KDPS officers who responded found a 19-year-old man suffering from a gunshot wound and immediately began life-saving measures, WKZO reported. The man succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead.
In that case, too, the department said the investigation was in its preliminary stages and no suspect information was available. KDPS has not announced any link between the West Michigan Avenue and Ravine Road shootings, and it has not said whether the two killings are connected.
A third man wounded in the same weekend string
The two killings were not the only gunfire in Kalamazoo this weekend. WZZM 13 On Your Side, tallying the weekend in the city, reported two people dead and one person hurt in a string of shootings across Kalamazoo, and WXMI reported that a man suffered injuries that were not life-threatening in another shooting in the city. The reports did not tie the wounded man's shooting to either homicide scene.
The city and the department working the cases
Kalamazoo is a city of roughly 73,000 people in Kalamazoo County, in southwestern Michigan, set along the I-94 highway corridor between Detroit and Chicago and home to Western Michigan University. Its Department of Public Safety is a combined agency — KDPS officers are cross-trained to work as both police officers and firefighters — and it is the agency investigating both of this weekend's killings.
Both crime scenes are on well-travelled city streets rather than in isolated areas: West Michigan Avenue carries traffic through the heart of the city, and Ravine Road runs through a residential part of the north side. Police have not released the names of either man who died; identifications in cases like these are normally confirmed before families are publicly named, and KDPS has given no timeline for its next update.
Confirmed by KDPS via WKZO: two separate shootings, two 19-year-old victims, one on West Michigan Avenue early Saturday and one on Ravine Road early Sunday, both pronounced dead after being found with gunshot wounds. Not yet released: any suspect description, any arrest, any motive, the victims' names, and any statement on whether the two shootings are connected.
What happens next
Both investigations remain in their preliminary stages, and detectives are expected to work through witnesses, cameras and forensic evidence from the two scenes in the coming days. Until KDPS releases suspect information, the department's public position is the one it gave WKZO for both cases: the investigations are active, and no suspect information is available. For Kalamazoo residents, the practical questions — whether the two shootings are linked, and whether anyone is being sought — remain unanswered tonight.