Police looking for shooter after six people, including 5-year-old, shot at intersection

Community activist Michael Lynn, Lansing Police Assistant Chief Eric Pratl and Police Chief Rob Backus talk at a news conference following the shooting of six people at an intersection on April 23, 2026. – Mike Ellis

Lansing Police Assistant Chief Eric Pratl and Police Chief Rob Backus talk at a news conference following the shooting of six people at an intersection on April 23, 2026. – Mike Ellis

Six people, including a 5-year-old and a 14-year-old, were shot Thursday around 9:45 p.m. at the intersection of Chestnut and Hillsdale streets, according to the Lansing Police Department.

The shooter walked away on foot and has not been identified, and while police have a physical description, they did not release any descriptive information about the shooter during a news conference Friday morning.

Police Chief Robert Backus said the shooter is believed to have approached a gathering of about 30 to 40 people and walked away on foot. Police dog tracking was not successful. He said a motive was not yet known.

Community leaders Michael Lynn and Michael McKissic spoke at the news conference.

Lynn, who helps run or operate several organizations that work on preventing gun violence, said there is risk for retailation and shootings can spawn more shootings.

Backus had praised the city’s crime figures on Wednesday, at a meeting run by Lynn, saying that the city’s non-fatal and fatal shooting numbers had been cut in half since last year. Backus did caution at the time that it would not take much to change the number of people who were shot.

On Friday, the chief said that the shooting meets the standards for a mass shooting, with six victims.

But one night, with one “stupid person with a handgun” , as Mayor Andy Schor described it, brought the city’s shooting rates back up.

“We’re doing a ton of work and being extremely successful,” he said. “All the work we’re doing is not wiped out by one stupid person with a.handgun.”

Backus said the underlying progress being made by police and community groups remains strong and will continue. That work – by groups like Lynn’s Empowered 360 and its upcoming Critical Incident CPR programs and McKissick’s Mikey23 Foundation that teaches construction trades to youth and the Advance Peace Lansing Peacemaker Foundation that assisted during the immedate aftermath of the Thursday shooting – has made real progress in Lansing and it is important to continue those efforts, Backus said.

McKissick said there are many organziations offering to help young people and assisting those organizations can help give youth a purpose and hope.

“We have to get that mentoring involvement during the summer, idle time is not great,” he said.

Eric Pratl, the city’s assistant police chief, said summertime violence is anticipated.

“There is a predictable increase in calls for service and violent crime in the summer and we allocate resources to that,” he said. The city will be working on engagement and enforcement this summer, Pratl said.

Police identified the victims as being primarily shot in the lower part of their bodies, with the teenager being grazed in the ear and the 5-year-old being shot in the leg. All were reported in stable condition.

35-year-old female

31-year-old male

23-year-old female

21-year-old female

14-year-old female

5-year-old female

Police looking for shooter after six people, including 5-year-old, shot at intersection

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