Man opens fire at Novi apartment complex

Shots rang out today from the parking lot of a Novi apartment complex, where a man reportedly opened fire on another man. 

Novi Police Cmdr. Robert Manar said officers were called to the scene of a shooting at 10:22 a.m. Feb. 25 in the 47000 block of Central Park Boulevard — across Beck Road from Henry Ford Providence Novi Hospital — after a man reported hearing nine gunshots.

Burnon Lilly, of Novi, said he was applying for an apartment at Central Park Estates when he witnessed the shooting from the building window. 

He said he was inside the office building when he saw a male running northbound past the building in the direction of the complex’s entrance and exit.

“At that point, I heard a bunch of shots going off,” he said.

Lilly said he believed one of the shots had hit the man.

“I seen him stumble,” Lilly said. “I don’t know if he got shot. Obviously, he must have got shot if he stumbled.”

Lilly, a retired Wayne County sheriff's deputy with a concealed pistol license, said he started to run to his car to get his weapon.

“When I heard the three shots go off — boom, boom, boom, boom, boom — I’m thinking I could get to my car, because my car was right outside this door. So, I figured I had enough time to get to my car. So, when I ran towards the door to get my gun, that’s when one of the agents ran towards me and said, ‘The shooter is right there, shooting,'” Lilly said. “So, we had to beeline towards the closet.”

Lilly said that he and the apartment staff hid in a closet until the police arrived and cleared the building. 

“At that point, we didn’t want the shooter to start shooting at us, so we had to secure ourselves in the closet,” he said.

“It was crazy. Just out of nowhere, it happened,” Lilly said.

Upon arrival at the Central Park Estates apartments, Manar said, officers determined that a 38-year-old man had sustained two gunshot wounds to the upper arm and had transported himself to the hospital.

“We do believe that the incident occurred between two individuals that know each other and that there is no known threat to the public at this time,” Manar said.

Still, “out of an abundance of caution,” the Novi Community School District put several of its buildings into “secure mode” to protect its students and staff.

“Earlier this morning, it was reported that shots were fired in a community directly adjacent to Providence Hospital (Henry Ford Ascension) in Novi. We were immediately notified and promptly went into secure mode out of an abundance of caution to protect our students and staff,” Ben Mainka, Novi Community School District superintendent, said in an email to parents and guardians.

Secure mode prohibits people from entering and exiting the buildings but allows all activities within the schools to continue.

Mainka stressed that the schools were never in “lockdown.” 

As of 11:49 a.m., police were still “actively looking” for the shooter.

The schools remained in secure mode for approximately one hour before they were given the all clear shortly after 12:30 p.m.