A fender-bender on a quiet stretch of Pontiac's East Beverly Avenue turned into a gunfire scene shortly after 1:30 a.m. Sunday, October 18, 2026, after a man climbed out of his car and fired multiple rounds into the ground before both vehicles sped off into the dark. Oakland County Sheriff's deputies recovered ten spent 9-millimeter shell casings and a live round at the scene, but as of this week, neither driver nor the shooter has been identified.
According to MLive, deputies assigned to the Pontiac substation responded to reports of a crash and shots fired in the 700 block of East Beverly Avenue on Sunday. Witnesses told investigators a tan sedan rear-ended a white sedan near East Beverly Avenue and Arlene Street, and that a man got out of the white sedan and fired several shots into the ground just outside the driver's door of the other car. Both vehicles then fled west on East Beverly Avenue toward Joslyn Road, the outlet reported.
Casings, Debris, and a Blank Spot Where Answers Should Be
Investigators recovered the ten spent shell casings along with a live, unfired round, and found vehicle debris scattered in the roadway, per the same report. Notably, they found no apparent bullet damage in the immediate area, despite the volume of gunfire described by witnesses. Detectives have also obtained surveillance footage capturing portions of the incident, though the circumstances of the crash and shooting remain under investigation, the station's report notes.
It is still unclear whether the collision between the two sedans was accidental or deliberate, and neither driver has been identified publicly. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Oakland County Sheriff's Office at 248-858-4950.
What Michigan Law Says About Fleeing and Firing
Whatever sparked the crash, both drivers could face criminal exposure simply for leaving the scene. Under Michigan Vehicle Code MCL 257.618, leaving the scene of an accident involving property damage to an attended vehicle is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days in jail, a $100 fine, and six driver's license points, according to Michigan Auto Law.
The shooter faces far steeper consequences. Michigan Penal Code MCL 750.234a makes intentionally discharging a firearm from a motor vehicle a felony carrying up to 10 years in prison if the discharge endangers another person, per the Neumann Law Group. However, the reported account describes the shooter firing while standing outside the white sedan, so that provision does not apply to this incident. On top of that, Michigan's felony firearm law, MCL 750.227b, imposes a mandatory two-year prison sentence for possessing a firearm during a felony, one that must be served consecutively before any sentence for the underlying crime, according to Joseph A. Simon, PLLC.
Why County Deputies, Not City Police, Are on the Case
Pontiac disbanded its own municipal police department years ago, and now contracts all of its policing through the Oakland County Sheriff's Office Pontiac Patrol Division, which keeps a 24-hour substation in the city, according to Oakland County Government. That arrangement is why sheriff's deputies, rather than a city police force, responded to and are now investigating the East Beverly Avenue shooting. The Pontiac City Council voted 6–1 in December 2024 to renew a three-year sheriff's services contract through 2027, as reported by The Oakland Press.
The shooting also lands amid a broader civic reckoning over gun violence in Pontiac. In May, the city council declared gun violence a public health crisis; by September, it had advanced a resolution to create a local prevention task force after three separate shootings struck the city within a 10-day span, according to ClickOnDetroit. Around the same time, Mayor Mike McGuinness publicly stressed that reducing gun violence in Pontiac requires long-term prevention strategies rather than quick fixes, CBS News Detroit reported.
Nationally, some aggressive-driving and road-rage confrontations involve firearms. Yet in Michigan specifically, an analysis of Gun Violence Archive data found that road rage shootings have actually declined in recent years even as the nationwide trend moved the other way, according to Axios Detroit. The East Beverly Avenue case fits uneasily into that picture, since investigators have not said whether the confrontation was road rage at all or simply a dispute that followed an ordinary crash.
It is the latest in a string of Michigan incidents where traffic disputes have escalated into gunfire this year, including a St. Clair County I-94 shooting last month that ended in an arrest. Oakland County itself recorded 27 assault-related homicide deaths in 2024, an age-adjusted rate of 2.2 per 100,000 residents, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. No injuries have been reported in the Pontiac shooting, and investigators continue working to identify everyone involved.
