Detroit police are searching for a man they say shot a 2-year-old boy Tuesday on the city’s east side.

Police said the child was in stable condition Tuesday night, though the alleged shooter remained at large.

Authorities were dispatched to the 500 block of Dickerson Avenue, between Freud Street and Essex Avenue, at 6:48 p.m. for a report that a child had been shot, Interim Detroit Police Chief Todd Bettison said.

Investigators believe Darius Lacey, 27, arrived at his ex’s home and went inside to move some items out of the house. Inside he encountered his ex’s new boyfriend, Bettison said.

“Ex-boyfriend gets into shootout with new boyfriend and in the exchange of gunfire his child was shot,” Bettison said.

The child was shot in the thigh and the bullet went all the way through his leg, police said.

Investigators were still working to piece together more details, including which of the men fired the first shot.

Bettison said at least 15 shell casings were discovered at the scene.

As of Tuesday night, police were searching for Lacey, who fled the scene with two companions in a black Dodge Charger, Bettison said. He was confident Lacey would be arrested soon.

“The public in general isn’t in danger. It was a domestic so I’m not as concerned there,” Bettison said, “but, we will have him apprehended shortly.”

mreinhart@detroitnews.com

@max_detroitnews

MILWAUKEE — After a recent report of a deadly shooting in Milwaukee, we received an email from a viewer named Mario.

He wrote in part, “The tragedy of a shooting is much greater than the financial cost, but people pay attention to the costs because that affects them personally.”

Our Lighthouse team did some digging and found a brand new study with a staggering figure.

“If there are 200 approximately homicides in the city of Milwaukee every year and two to three times that many non-fatal shootings, the cumulative cost to residents of Milwaukee taxpayers who live in the city is exponential,” she said.

Rabinowitz is the research director at the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (NICJR). For the first time, it recently published a study that breaks down the financial costs of fatal and non-fatal shootings in Milwaukee.

Watch: Study estimates each fatal shooting in Milwaukee costs taxpayers $2.1 million

New study estimates each fatal shooting in Milwaukee costs taxpayers $2.1 million

The national non-profit focused on six key expenses.

Each time police and first responders go to the scene of a deadly shooting, NICJR found it costs an average of about $8,000. Average hospital costs amount to nearly $90,000. Investigating and prosecuting the crime adds up to another $55,000.

That’s followed by incarceration which is by far the biggest cost of all to the tune of $1.7 million.

When you add victim support expenses and lost tax revenue, the cost estimate for each fatal shooting exceeds $2 million, and more than 640,000 for non-fatal shootings, according to the study.

“There are going to be people who watch this story and say, ‘That’s hard to believe’. What would be your response to them?” TMJ4 reporter Ben Jordan asked.

“My first response to them would be that our estimates are far more conservative than the estimates of a number of other gun violence reduction organizations trying to do similar analyses and that’s because we’re only measuring the direct and measurable costs of gun violence,” Rabinowitz said.

Rabinowitz discovered Milwaukee homicides are more costly to taxpayers than similarly sized cities like Detroit, Indianapolis, and Atlanta largely because of higher incarceration costs in Wisconsin.

TMJ4

“My hope is that people understand that these costs are not costs that we should be comfortable with,” Reggie Moore said.

Moore is the Director of Community Safety, Policy, and Engagement at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He collaborates with the city, county, and state to address violence as a public health issue. His team is now partnering with the researchers who studied the financial cost.

“What do you hope people who see this story take away from this report?” Jordan asked.

“I think it’s important. When you multiply the amount of homicides in one given year by the total cost, that’s hundreds of millions of dollars,” he said.

Moore hopes it helps people understand the value of prevention efforts and the need to invest upfront.

“For example, a program like 414 Life costs $2 million,” he said. “If it saves one life, the return on investment in preventing one homicide is clear. The price for doing nothing or not doing more to prevent these things on the front end is a cost none of us should be willing to pay.”

It’s important to note that Milwaukee’s homicides are down 22 percent compared to last year. According to this study, that reduction saves taxpayers an estimated $68 million.

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MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – A high-profile murder conviction in Minneapolis has been overturned on appeal after a judge finds the suspect’s trial was unfair.

Drew McGinley was shot and killed in June 2021 outside the Elks Club in North Minneapolis after an unrelated vigil. Last week, an appellate court judge ruled that Deandre Turner, who was convicted of the killing and sentenced to 27 years, was deprived of a fair trial.

What was the ruling?

Appellate Judge Cochran overturned the conviction, citing evidentiary errors and prosecutorial misconduct. The decision noted that the state’s case was weak, with no forensic evidence presented—no gun, no DNA, and reliance on grainy surveillance footage. Additionally, the state improperly used an out-of-court statement where its sole witness identified the shooter at the suggestion of a police sergeant. In court, that witness denied knowing who fired the fatal shot.

Court documents say other prosecutorial errors included:

• Attorneys referring to witnesses who did not testify.
• Claiming Turner was “drunk and probably high” without proof
• Insinuating that Turner was in a gang without proof.

Context

McGinley was a respected community member who ran a T-shirt printing business and volunteered as a youth coach and mentor. He was killed after a confrontation with a former gang member.

McGinley’s death was devastating for the community.

Keith Cook, who played for McGinley, described him as a father figure, saying, “He was there for me, like for football, basketball, and my life, school.”

The case drew significant attention because it all started with an altercation between McGinley and Sharif Willis, a former gang leader turned peace activist. Willis spoke with FOX 9 during the trial, refusing to comment directly on the case, but saying: “We got to put some of these guns down, got to stop killing each other. It’s senseless, it’s useless, everybody’s a victim in this.”

What’s next?

Turner remains in prison for now.

The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office has 30 days to appeal the appellate court’s decision or decide to re-try the case.

The office stated it is reviewing the case: “The Court of Appeals opinion is concerning, and we are in the process of reviewing the transcript before making a decision.”