GRAND RAPIDS, Mich — Kevin Abbot was a friend of Anayia Rodriguez, the 20-year-old East Kentwood graduate who was found shot and killed near the Burton Heights neighborhood in Grand Rapids.
"Honestly, it just hurts knowing that somebody like anybody could die at any point, you know what I mean? It's just hard to accept that, especially living in Grand Rapids," said Abbot.
Just a few doors down, 19-year-old Malik Eubanks was also found shot and killed. Eubanks' 2-year-old son, who police think was with him at the time, was found wandering the neighborhood covered in blood, but was uninjured.
Hours later, 32-year-old Darryl Yarber was shot and killed also in the Burton Heights area, just blocks from Eubanks and Rodriguez.
"They just need to stop," said Abbot. "Like I said, this used to be a beautiful city and just knowing that there are people here trying to make it the opposite of that, you know, it just needs to stop. It needs to stop."
GRPD Chief Eric Winstrom said they're working to connect the dots and bring some peace back to the city.
His investigators talked to dozens of neighbors and community members near the different crime scenes.
"There was over 100 people out there total," said Chief Winstrom. "I spoke to many, many people and it was a feeling of frustration, a feeling of sadness, a feeling of anger, but they have high expectations for the neighborhood. We have high expectations for their neighborhood, and they're not willing to settle. They're not willing to say that this is to be expected here."
When asked if these events were related, Chief Winstrom said that they very well could be.
"Is it possible that they're completely unrelated in this as a coincidence? Yes, in my experience, that would be very unlikely," said Chief Winstrom. "But we deal with a lot of unlikely things in this in this profession. So it's still a possibility."
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