'It crushed us': Detroit community rebuilds after deadly block party mass shooting

The minutes spent waiting for Detroit police to arrive, listening to the screams for help from those escaping and others injured by gunfire, felt like hours to Kim Slone.

And seeing the bodies of young people shot, lying on the ground and surrounded by blood: “It crushed us,” Slone said, speaking for herself and neighbors in what she described as her tight-knit Mohican Regent community where Sunday's mass shooting took place.

The east-side neighborhood had just gathered at Marbud Park for a community picnic on Saturday night. It was beautiful, full of love, Slone said.

Gunfire erupted about 2:30 a.m. Sunday at an illegal block party nearby on Rossini Drive. A 20-year-old woman and a 21-year-old man were killed and 19 others injured.

The mass shooting was the state's worst since at least 2013. Its victims were young, ranging from 17 to 27 years old, and mostly women. No one has been charged, police said.

Witnesses, including Slone, described the chaos of hundreds of partygoers running in every direction, some carrying the bodies of those caught in the crossfire, and taking cover behind cars.

In reaction, Detroit police announced Monday a new 80-officer unit dedicated to preventing further bloodshed at unlawful block parties, which authorities say are becoming increasingly violent. Part of the police strategy includes responding to calls coming from block parties as “priority one” calls — police consider these calls life-threatening and respond faster.

But it's people like Slone who are left to pick up the pieces of a crushed community, left to help rebuild and heal from the trauma gun violence inflicts on neighborhoods across metro Detroit.

There is no other option, Slone, 59, said: “This is my community.”

By Tuesday, camera crews had left, and Rossini Drive, where the party was centered, was quiet. Detroit detectives were still canvassing the neighborhood, knocking on doors on Rossini and other nearby streets.

'Each and every one of us'

Slone and a group of volunteers were posted up on Fairmount Drive doing yardwork for a neighbor, a struggling single father of four.

Nearby, Robert Lewis, 49, was working a day-shift community patrol for 4820Live, an alliance of organizations in and around Detroit’s historically violent “Red Zone” neighborhoods. Those organizations include Camp Restore, Denby Neighborhood Alliance, and Raham Inc., and Wayne Metro Community Action Agency.

The alliance’s name flips the script on the area's longtime nickname: “4820-die.”

Federal law enforcement has targeted the area in recent years, working with Detroit police and community leaders in an effort to combat and prevent violent crime through community outreach and the prosecution of the area's most violent suspects.

Lewis was joined by two Detroit Free Press journalists on his usual route on Tuesday when he passed by Slone. He stopped to say hello.

Despite working night shifts at his full-time job, Lewis patrols the streets of his neighborhood every afternoon, reporting illegal dumping and blight to the city and driving by nearby schools and parks to make sure the community’s children are safe.

“They say I take cat naps,” Lewis said with a soft laugh, joking about his lack of sleep. What drives him to do this work are his own young children, ages 12, 10 and 5.

“I want my children to be able to play in a safe neighborhood,” Lewis said. “It all starts with the individual, each and every one of us.”

Lewis made his way to Rossini Drive, passing the scene of Sunday’s tragedy. He shook his head and grew silent.

Then he drove to the other side of Gratiot Avenue, where members of the 4820Live alliance were passing out free food to the community at a grass lot they transformed from blight to a community green space at Seymour Avenue and Chalmers Street.

Walking by was a father and his two young sons. They stopped for food and expressed gratitude.

The alliance hosts free food pop-ups in areas of the neighborhood that have gone through recent violence.

“Lovin’ on the community” is critical, said Sandra Turner-Handy, 66, a longtime community organizer.

She welcomed the changes police announced on Monday in addressing unlawful block parties.She said her neighbors did what they were supposed to do: call the police.

"If you see something, say something. That's what they did," she said.

Phillip Sample, 48, another organizer with 4820Live, said the community’s response to the shooting has been “all hands on deck,” starting with assisting at the scene.

The scene he responded to, he said, was “total chaos. … It was almost like a dream or a movie. It was unbelievable.”

It was nighttime but it looked like day from all the emergency lights, Sample said.

The next day, he and others knocked on doors and began engaging with neighbors, victims and their families, offering resources.

“What did we learn from this? What weren’t we doing, what could we have been doing?” Sample asked.

Preventing violence, he said, includes more resources, strengthening block clubs, improving relationships with neighborhood police officers, more opportunities for youths and safe spaces for them to gather.

And it also includes investing in communities.

“I like to reiterate, you see how big the problem is. But you allocate such small resources. And then you expect the people with such small resources to be magicians, right?” Sample said.

Crime stats show an improvement: According to recent police data, as of June 27, 2024, homicides in the 9th Precinct have dropped 5.3% compared with the same time last year. Nonfatal shootings decreased 1.7%. But carjackings are up 87.5%.

'Call the police'

Dondre Knight, a resident on Rossini Drive, asked two Free Press journalists whether they've ever watched the movie "Project X," a 2012 film about three high school friends who throw a party that grows out of control.

"It's exactly like that," Knight, 30, said, describing the block party on his street he and his girlfriend came home to shortly past midnight.

"There were cars and people everywhere," he said. "My first thought was 'call the police.' "

So he did, twice. And his girlfriend called five times, he said. Dispatch told the couple that officers were on their way, Knight said, but no one came until after multiple suspects exchanged gunfire.

"Obviously, it was too late," Knight said.

When he heard the gunfire, followed by cries and screams, he sent his girlfriend upstairs to take cover, and thought to himself: "where the f--- is police?"

He had hoped no one was killed. Then he went outside and saw a woman lying in the middle of the street, blood trailing from her head.

"Examples don't have to be set before changes are made," Knight said.

Knight said the next day, he had left to go to the store. But when he came back, police would not let him back to his home. An officer pulled out his stun gun and threatened to use it on Knight in front of his pregnant girlfriend, Knight said.

Knight was arrested and taken to jail, but was sent home 20 minutes later and never charged, he said. But police did tow his truck.

Detroit police are working to verify the incident with Knight, according to Sgt. Daron Zhou, a spokesperson for the department.

Knight had never met Sample before, but it was Sample who helped Knight get his truck back on Tuesday afternoon. That was enough for Knight to join 4820Live on the spot.

"I needed something to be a part of — do my part," Knight said.

Andrea Sahouri covers criminal justice for the Detroit Free Press. She can be contacted at asahouri@freepress.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit community rebuilds after deadly block party mass shooting