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WAYNE COUNTY

Man, 49, found shot dead in Inkster

James David Dickson
The Detroit News

Inkster — A 49-year-old man was found fatally shot multiple times Wednesday in the driveway of a home a neighbor described as a “party house.”

Lloyd Jackson, spokesman for the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office, said Wednesday afternoon that the victim was identified as Louis Perry by Michigan State Police but that his family had not formally identified him.

A tarp is placed in front of a body found Wednesday morning behind a Jeep in the backyard of a residence on the 26400 block of Avondale in Inkster.

According to state police, neighbors called 911 with reports of shots fired on the 26400 block of Avondale in Inkster around 3:40 a.m., but officers who canvassed the area weren’t able to find anything.

It wasn’t until 6:30 a.m., after a neighbor came outside and found the victim’s body, that police located the man, shot dead, behind a dark-green Jeep, said Lt. Mike Shaw.

Three suspects, who were in the home when police arrived, were brought in for questioning, Shaw said. The people in the home were not the ones who called police, he said.

Ondra Martin, 52, said the victim was his friend for the last 40 years.

When Martin got word from the man’s family that he had been killed, he found the news hard to believe. His friend, part-landscaper, part-handyman, “didn’t even hang out like that,” he said.

By 10:05 a.m., a Michigan State Police vehicle had blocked off the driveway where the man was found, and officials had placed a yellow tarp on the fence to partially shield the man from public view.

When neighbor Kevin Yost, 54, heard shots early Wednesday morning, “I knew where they came from, and they weren’t fireworks,” he told The News.

“I heard seven loud shots, then four soft ones,” Yost said.

The home in question, Yost said, is a party house where late-night gatherings often run into early morning.

Lt. Michael Shaw of the Michigan State Police comforts a woman, who identified herself as a sister, after she dropped to her knees after seeing the body across the street of a man found Wednesday morning behind a Jeep in the backyard of a residence on the 26400 block of Avondale in Inkster.

Martin said he had no idea why the victim was at the house. What he was certain of, though, is the ripple effect his friend’s death would cause.

“This one is going to hit Inkster hard,” Martin said. “If you needed something, (he) would give it to you. There wasn’t no reason to do something like this.”

“(He) didn’t bother nobody,” Martin said. “He didn’t have a violent tendency in his body.”

Alesia Thompson, 50, who has been a police chaplain in Inkster since 2005, was on the scene trying to comfort family and friends of the victim.

“Sometimes, you don’t have to say anything,” said Thompson, who is pastor of Jesus Christ Anointed Ministries in Romulus. “Sometimes, your presence is enough.”

Wednesday’s shooting is the second recent tragedy on that block of Avondale. In April, a 2-year-old boy died after he was found face down in inches of “scalding hot water” in an upstairs whirlpool bathtub next door to where the fatal shooting took place, state police confirmed.

It was someone from that house who found the man’s body Wednesday.

Since 2011, Michigan State Police have investigated all homicides and nonfatal shootings in Inkster, part of the agency’s work under the Secure Cities Partnership, Shaw said.

jdickson@detroitnews.com