Key takeaways:
- A 13-year-old girl survived being shot four times in Lake Township, Michigan, and called 911 to report the shooting.
- Police say suspected gunman Chad Hickman, 39, killed five people across three locations in Missaukee County before he was found dead in a wooded area.
- Investigators had not released the victims’ names as of Saturday, but a relative identified two of them as Amanda Everitt, 40, and her 16-year-old son, Eric.
A 13-year-old Michigan girl shot four times during a rural shooting rampage called 911 herself, helping authorities identify the suspected gunman in an attack that left six people dead, including the suspect, state police and her family said.
The girl was found Friday at a home in Lake Township, in Missaukee County, where three other people were dead when officers arrived around 11:40 a.m., Michigan State Police said. She was taken to a hospital in critical condition and was stable by Saturday.
She “called 911 to report that she had been shot,” state police spokesperson Lt. Ashley Miller said. The suspected shooter had fled before officers arrived, but investigators quickly identified him, Miller said.
“We were able to identify him right away,” she said, declining to say how.
Police identified the suspected gunman as Chad Hickman, 39. Authorities believe he killed five people across three locations before he was found dead in a wooded area near Whitlock Lake, next to the body of one of the victims. Police had launched a manhunt for him after the shootings.
At the first home, officers found a 45-year-old man, a 40-year-old woman and a 16-year-old boy dead, along with the wounded 13-year-old girl, state police said. At a second home in Missaukee County, police found a 53-year-old man dead. In the wooded area, investigators found Hickman and a 29-year-old woman dead next to each other.
Police said the victims died of gunshot wounds. Miller said investigators could not yet say whether Hickman killed himself, pending an autopsy.
Authorities had not released the victims’ names or their relationships to the suspect as of Saturday. A relative identified two of those killed in a Facebook post 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.” He asked for prayers for the wounded girl, his granddaughter, “who while shot 4 times still managed to call 911 and identify the shooter.”
“She is a hero,” he wrote.
The investigation, including the search for a motive, was continuing. Miller said the killings had devastated Missaukee County, a rural northern Michigan county with a population of about 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.”
In a separate statement Friday, Miller said, “This situation is heartbreaking for the community and challenging for the investigators involved.”
The Guardian reported that court records show Hickman was convicted in 2024 of misdemeanor fourth-degree child abuse and sentenced to one year in prison. The charges stemmed from a complaint filed by his ex-wife, Katie, who had initiated divorce in September 2023, according to the report.
As of Sunday, there had been at least 15 mass murders in the United States this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines mass murders as cases in which four or more victims are killed.
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