Two dead in shooting at Detroit-area apartment for seniors

LINCOLN PARK, Mich. (AP) -- A tenant in a senior citizens' apartment shot two women to death this morning after fellow residents criticized his inappropriate language, authorities said. <br><br>The

Tuesday, April 18th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

LINCOLN PARK, Mich. (AP) -- A tenant in a senior citizens' apartment shot two women to death this morning after fellow residents criticized his inappropriate language, authorities said.

The gunman remained at large early this afternoon as tenants were told to stay in their apartments. Police cordoned off an area around the building.

WWJ Radio and WXYZ quoted Fire Chief Ernie Moon as saying two people were shot to death. A woman was in critical condition at Henry Ford Wyandotte Hospital, said hospital spokesman John Lewandowski.

One witness told WXYZ that he heard about 15 shots; that could not be immediately confirmed.

Apartment officials had summoned the man for a meeting after other residents complained of his language, said Phyllis McLenon, deputy director of the Lincoln Park Housing Commission.

"He was very upset, and was very upset with some of the ladies who were complaining about him," she told WDIV-TV.

The man left the meeting and was gone for about 10 minutes --then the building's maintenance man reported on a two-way radio that the man was coming back shooting, she said.

He shot one woman in the building office and another in the doorway, McLenon said. Some people ran hide.

During the meeting before the shooting, McLenon said, the man "was very dissatisfied and making threats. ... He kept saying he wouldn't have this character assassination and that he would take care of it."

She said 114 people live in the 14-story building in this Detroit suburb.

Kimberly Bowden, who lives in an apartment complex next to the building, said someone came to her door around noon and told her to stay inside and away from her windows.

"Then I heard some shots. I saw a couple of cops hiding behind trees," she said.

Police used loudspeakers to get pedestrians out of the area, Bowden said.

"I heard (an officer) say `Get out of the line of fire!"' she said.

State and Melvindale police, as well as Wayne County sheriff's deputies, were assisting at the scene, barricaded off in a several-block radius around the building.

At Raupp Elementary School roughly a half-mile away from the shooting scene, principal Bernie Falahee said the shooting happened as half of the school's 400 students were outside on lunch recess.

They were ordered inside and the school was in a lockdown mode, with no students being released unless their parents come to retrieve them, Falahee said.

"We're waiting for an all-clear," he said. "We're orderly. We have doors locked."