Toddler dies in mistaken identity shooting on Michigan freeway. ‘Completely innocent’
Brian Christian was driving his family home from basketball practice when gunfire erupted on the freeway.
His truck started to malfunction and Christian pulled to the side of the Interstate 75 in Detroit last Thursday night.
Then he and his wife realized their sons, 2-year-old Brison and 9-year-old BJ, had been shot.
“What did I do for someone to want to kill me and my family?” Christian said he thought to himself while speaking at a news conference broadcast by WJBK. “I do everything the right way.”
According to police, Brison was shot in the head while sitting in a car seat and a bullet hit BJ in the arm. Medics rushed the brothers to a hospital, where Brison was pronounced dead.
BJ was later released.
“I keep saying I feel like none of my family was supposed to make it out (of) that truck,” Christian said. “I keep replaying the incident in the back of my mind and replaying it and thinking what I could’ve did differently.”
On Tuesday, Wayne County prosecutors announced two arrests in the shooting, which they described as a case of mistaken identity.
Eugene Meredith Hubbard, 21, and Darius Evonte Lanier, 19, are charged with first-degree murder and over a dozen other charges, officials said.
According to Michigan State Police, Hubbard and Lanier shot at the family’s black truck believing the vehicle was driven by someone else and fled the scene.
“This is unacceptable,” Interim Detroit Police Chief James White said. “People ought not live like this. This is a horrible situation. The way that Mr. Christian has conducted himself in this is strength that I’ve never seen and he should be applauded.”
Christian said he was grateful that police provided answers to his family.
“If I’m with my family coming from a family event, and my wife and both my kids are in the car, and Brison is in his carseat where he’s supposed to be, you know, I was doing the right thing,” he said. “I find peace with that.”
Wayne County Prosecuting Attorney Kim Worthy said the family was “completely innocent” just driving home from a sports activity.
“A child is dead because adults decided that they were judge, jury and executioner,” Worthy said in a statement. “They will get a fair trial, but Brison doesn’t get to have a life.”
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