Christine Ferretti

The Detroit News

A spate of three shootings over three hours Friday night resulted in two deaths and at least six injured on Detroit’s east side, police said.

The worst shooting happened on the 12300 block of Gratiot where five people were shot. One person died and four were critically injured outside an unidentified establishment, said Detroit Deputy Police Chief Renee Hall. It is a well-known crime area, she said.

Police didn’t have any details about the shooting, but said children at the establishment witnessed the shootings.

“Tonight, we are looking at a tragic situation throughout the east side of Detroit,” Hall said. “Eight people are shot and two are dead.

“It was a 74-degree day. The sun was out, and right now we have people all across the city firing shots at each other.”

In another incident, an unidentified man was ambushed by three African-American men near Packard and Savage, police said. Two men in the back of a dark-colored Dodge Stratus got out and fired several shots at a man, killing him, Hall said.

In the other shooting around 7:40 p.m., someone tried to rob a man outside of a home on the 2000 block of Mead St. The man’s brother came out of the house with a weapon and 10-15 shots were exchanged, Hall said.

The suspect and the armed brother were injured, she said. Police recovered two weapons outside the home and one inside of it.

The nighttime shootings followed a noontime shooting of a 28-year-old man in his car along Interstate 94 near the Lodge Freeway in Detroit. The man who was hit in the head, midsection and leg was critically injured, police said, adding that the incident followed a prior dispute.

“We’re looking forward to summer,” Hall said, “but we’re not certain our citizens are looking forward to it with all of the crime going on right now.”

cferretti@detroitnews.com