A bullet tore through the door of a car traveling westbound on I-94 near Livernois Avenue in Detroit yesterday, lodging in the side of the driver's seat and narrowly missing the person behind the wheel. The driver told investigators another vehicle had followed them before pulling alongside on the freeway, at which point a suspect pointed a firearm out the window and fired a single shot.
Michigan State Police confirmed they were notified of the shooting yesterday and are now investigating, according to CBS News Detroit. Troopers recovered a bullet fragment from inside the vehicle, and the outlet reports the round traveled through the door before striking the driver's seat. The driver was not hit.
Investigators are asking anyone who may have been traveling on I-94 or I-96 near West Grand Boulevard and Livernois Avenue on Sunday to come forward with information, the report notes. That stretch of freeway sits immediately next to the interchange linking I-96 and West Grand Boulevard, a busy junction that offers a fleeing driver several fast routes onto surface streets and can complicate any attempt by troopers to catch up in real time.
A Familiar Stretch of Highway Violence
Sunday's shooting is the latest in a string of gunfire incidents that have rattled Metro Detroit's expressways this year. Just two months ago, on July 14, a gunman opened fire on an undercover Wayne County sheriff's deputy conducting rolling surveillance on eastbound I-94 near Cadieux Road, an incident Hoodline previously covered in Gunman Opens Fire On Deputy that triggered a multi-agency manhunt and a temporary freeway shutdown. Earlier in the summer, on June 5, troopers shut down eastbound I-94 near Harper Avenue after a wounded driver sought treatment at a nearby hospital around 5 a.m.
Michigan State Police reported that at least six freeway shootings occurred across the Metro Detroit expressway network during a single two-month span earlier this summer, according to ClickOnDetroit. The pattern stretches back further still: Metro Detroit agencies formed Operation Brison, a joint task force bringing together state troopers and local departments for high-visibility patrols and aerial surveillance, after a 2-year-old was killed in a 2021 freeway shooting on I-75, per FOX 2 Detroit.
How Troopers Track Down Fleeing Vehicles
Because these shootings unfold at highway speeds and suspects scatter fast, Michigan State Police lean heavily on automated license plate reader networks installed along corridors including I-94 and I-75, which capture plate images and store vehicle data for up to 30 days, according to WKAR Public Media. The cameras cross-reference passing plates against law enforcement hotlists, giving detectives a way to trace suspect vehicles even after they've vanished into surface streets.
That surveillance technology is now at the center of a legislative fight in Lansing. Bipartisan House Bill 5492, introduced in August, would set statewide guardrails on the plate-reader networks, capping data retention at 14 days and limiting access to specific criminal investigations or warrant requests, CBS News Detroit reports. Privacy advocates, including the ACLU, have pushed for firmer statutory limits on how long the tracking data can be stored and who can access it.
Potential Charges If a Suspect Is Identified
Michigan law treats intentionally firing a gun from a moving vehicle as a serious felony regardless of whether anyone is struck. Under Michigan Penal Code § 750.234a, discharging a firearm from a vehicle in a manner that endangers another person carries up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine, with penalties rising to life imprisonment if the shooting causes a death. Anyone charged would also face Michigan's felony-firearm statute, Michigan Compiled Laws § 750.227b, which imposes a mandatory two-year prison sentence to be served before, and separate from, any other sentence.
No suspect has been identified in Sunday's shooting. Michigan State Police are asking anyone with information to contact the Metro South Post in Taylor at (734) 287-5000, or to submit anonymous tips through Crime Stoppers of Michigan at 1-800-SPEAK-UP.
