July 2011 was a hot one - hot as balls outside, and even hotter in the streets around West Michigan. The afternoon of July 7 rolled around, and I made my way to work - second shift at a furniture factory (for the period of about 2 weeks, until I inquired with the temp service about a shift premium, then was promptly moved back to first shift). Work started at 2pm and went to 10pm. We were training a new guy that day, and had him at a workstation looking out the window, facing the intersection of Rumsey and Godfrey Avenue in Grand Rapids. Sometime before our first break at 4pm, a bunch of police cars began circling around. This new employee was getting edgier and edgier, more and more paranoid as he was watching the police cars outside. The poor guy split at break time, leaving us to handle his workload.
As the rest of us continued our work day, we eventually wrapped up our responsibilities, turned off the ventilation and lights, and shuffled down the rickety stairs and out the back door of the building. Much to our surprise, we ran into a Lincoln Town Car with a window kicked out, and a Grand Rapids Police Department forensics officer sitting in his SUV behind it with a laptop. My coworkers and I laughed to ourselves and cracked jokes about what happened: Drug deal gone bad, kidnapping gone awry, simple vandalism. Who knew?
I got into my car, cranked up both the air conditioner and the Metallica CD, and pulled my phone out of the glove box. Imagine my surprise as I saw several missed calls and text messages asking if I was okay, and to call the senders as soon as possible - these coming from my mom, my girlfriend, and a few other folks. I answered that of course I was fine, and asked what was up: There was a mass shooting around the area of Grand Rapids I'd worked in, the shooter was still at large, and nobody knew what was going on.
The perp was 34, and had recently undergone a separation from his wife. Wikipedia posits that he may have been under the influence of cocaine and whiskey at the time, though any sources that are cited in that detail are now dead links. According to an MLive article, his rampage started sometime after 2pm, when a phone call was made to his mother at 2:41 saying that he'd killed his wife. He'd driven to the north side of Grand Rapids, and had holed up in a home, taking a few people hostage. MLive says that this incident took place between 2:30 and 4pm, though if you read the articles, the timeline is a little fuzzy and says that GRPD was looking for the tan Lincoln at that time. Given that our coworker left because of the police activity outside the factory at 4pm, that would seem to indicate that the perp had already made his way to our side of town and had stolen the Suburban that he was caught in. The Wikipedia article cited above confirms that, and notes that the perp was at the corner of Godfrey and Oxford at 3pm, and shot a fellow motorist in the face through the back-right window of his Lincoln before ditching it outside our door and stealing the Suburban.
By 7pm, the perp was still at large, trailing an ex-girlfriend in his car before leading a wild chase on the highways around Grand Rapids, crashing his car, escaping on foot, and holding more people hostage in a different apartment. It was here that the perp died by suicide, and the whole day wrapped up around 11:30pm.
His victims were Amanda Emkens (27), Marissa Emkens (10), and Kimberlee Emkens; all located at the first hostage site. Robert Poore was the injured victim at Godfrey and Oxford. Then, Jennifer Heeren (29), Kamrie Dantzler (12), Thomas Heeren (51), and Rebecca Heeren (52).
As I mentioned above, his Lincoln was ditched directly outside the back door that we used to walk into work. Had the shooter turned into the building after ditching the car instead of seeking out the Suburban that he stole, things might have been very different for me. Inside the door, you'd go forward into another industrial space, or turn right to go up the stairs to our factory...from there, you'd walk forward through the door onto the production floor (where I was groovin' with my pneumatic sander), or turn right to go to the employee timeclock and breakroom.
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