Man held in July 4, 2011 shooting

GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan - A man in the Kent County Correctional Facility on unrelated charges was arraigned Wednesday on charges related to a shooting at Rosa Parks Circle in downtown Grand Rapids last Fourth of July.

Devontae Traquell Collier, 20, is serving one year on unrelated charges for shooting a Kentwood youth pastor.

Tuesday, the Kent County Prosecutor's Office authorized a two-county warrant. Collier was charged with assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder and third-offense habitual offender.

Collier declined to say anything at his Tuesday afternoon arraignment.

Over the past year, the Metropolitan Area Major Case Task Force was able to interview people and gather information about the Fourth of July shooting incident that happened in a packed downtown Rosa Parks Circle, which helped lead to an arrest.

The night of the shooting, one victim was found by police at the scene. Another victim was found at the hospital. Both people had been shot in the leg.

Police say it was not a random event. Rather, Collier had had some kind of altercation with at least one of the victims before Independence Day, then saw him downtown and opened fire.

Police say there were two shooters: Collier and another man.

"That was, I think, a rare event," said GRPD Capt. Jeffrey Hertel. "I don't think it had anything to do with downtown. I think it had to do with two people seeing each other downtown at the same time and that's why it occurred. It could have occurred in any city street. ... Unfortunately, where we had a concentration of people celebrating the Fourth. It was bad."

For this year, the 4th of July celebration will be focused at Ah Nab Awen Park -- and nothing at Rosa Parks Circle.

Organizers for the 2012 events said the shooting has nothing to do with not including Rosa Parks Circle this year.

"It's more of a budgetary issue," said Grand Rapids Special Events Coordinator Todd Tofferi. "You've got to control the budget somewhere and it's easier to control one park and one area than to have the event spread out over two areas. Takes more staffing, costs more money, and it's just easier to do in one spot."

The festivities, though, will still have the same number of officers as last year's -- about 70 uniformed officers.

"I wouldn't be worried one bit about coming downtown," Tofferi said. "We have hundreds of events downtown, we bring one-and-a-half million people downtown for special events, and rarely does anything like that happen."