Detroit police say 2 arrested in double homicide that infant girl survived

Detroit — Police said Wednesday they arrested two people and recovered a firearm in connection with a double homicide at a gas station in which a mother was fatally shot while holding her 9-month-old daughter in the front passenger seat of a vehicle.

The child's father, who sat in the driver's seat in his parked car at the Marathon gas station on West Warren, was also killed Monday.

"There's still a lot of work to do in this case," Detroit police said in a press release.

Investigators say the gunmen targeted the 22-year-old Detroit residents as they sat in their Ford 500 sedan at about 8:30 p.m. at the Marathon gas station at West Warren and Ashton on the city's west side.

"This was not a random act of violence," Detroit Police Chief James White said at a Tuesday press conference held at the crime scene. "We're certain that they were targeted ... we're thankful that child was not injured, but she lost both her parents."

According to a Facebook post, the family of the mother who was killed is hosting a candlelight vigil at 7 p.m. Friday outside the gas station.

After the shooting, state child care workers arrived at the gas station Monday and released the girl to her grandmother, while police focused on finding the killers, said Cmdr. Michael McGinnis, who supervises the department's Homicide Section.

McGinnis said the suspects sprinted through the gas station lot toward the parked Ford 500 brandishing their pistols.

"The offenders came from the north ... both of them were armed with handguns, guns in hand, (they) ran up to the vehicle, and fired shots into the vehicle," McGinnis said. "Both the subjects then fled northbound on Ashton Street, and from there unknown."

McGinnis said both suspects were slender Black men. One wore a black hooded sweatshirt with a red stripe, black sweatpants with a red stripe and dark tennis shoes. The second suspect wore a blue sweatshirt, black sweatpants with a white stripe, and light-colored tennis shoes, McGinnis said.

White said the gas station participates in Project Green Light, the program in which business owners install high-definition video cameras and lighting at their establishments. The video feeds are sent to the Detroit police Real-Time Crime Center, where civilians and police officers monitor hundreds of camera feeds.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers of Michigan at (800) SPEAK-UP (773-2587), or the Detroit Police Homicide Section at (313) 596-2260.

ghunter@detroitnews.com

(313) 222-2134

Twitter: @GeorgeHunter_DN