Man shot twice wants more police action

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - Ryan Brown is recovering from being shot in the face and the arm over the weekend and is feeling lucky to be alive.

Brown, 24, was shot around 2:30 a.m Sunday near the corner of Neland Avenue and Dunham Street SE in Grand Rapids. He'd been drinking at a bar and wanted to do the right thing by walking -- not driving -- home.

He and a friend just left a downtown bar where they watched the Michigan-Notre Dame game. Though it was a long walk to his home, about two miles, he knew he'd had too much to drink to drive. And, he said, he's made the walk many times.

On his walk home, he told 24 Hour News 8, he crossed through a yard and heard someone shout that they would get a gun. At that point his friend ran, but Brown kept walking and called someone on his cellphone.

That's when, he said, a man approached him at the corner of Neland and Dunham and demanded money. He told the robber he didn't have any cash. That's when the other man pulled a gun, Brown said. One bullet grazed his lip and another struck his arm.

"He fired the first shot, which is the one that went up my face," Brown recalled for 24 Hour News 8. "And then I put him on his back and when he was on the ground, I turned around to run and he shot a second one and that's the one that went through my shoulder."

He ran a few blocks, he said, not even realizing he'd been shot until he saw blood.

He knocked on some doors looking for help, but no one answered. Finally, as Brown was close to losing consciousness, a driver stopped and called police.

But what happened next is what has him frustrated.

"To me, I took it like they were questioning me, like I was a suspect," he said.

Police, he said, peppered him with questions before taking him to a hospital.

"I was on the sidewalk, actually, where the paramedics were taking care of me," Brown said. "The cops were badgering me with questions about, like, 'Why are you here, where were you coming from, where do you live?' They couldn't understand why I was in that area."

And, he said, police went to his home while he was laid up in the hospital and got his roommates to let them search his room.

What he didn't realize at that time was another shooting had already happened in the area that same night, which may provide some explanation of the officers' actions.

But Brown said he still doesn't understand why police didn't show more concern for his well-being after he'd been shot.

"Why aren't you guys asking me, 'Are you ok? Where's your family?' or anything like that? I didn't get those questions," he said.

He said he felt like the focus was on him, rather than the person who pulled the trigger.

"I even told the police officer, I was like, I didn't ask for this," said Brown. "I didn't come here tonight to be shot. I was just trying to go home."

Now, he wants more: More done, more police in the area and more movement on his case.

He says he has no problem with the police department, but says he hasn't even spoken to a detective since the incident.

Police wouldn't comment on the case or why they searched Brown's home.

Police still don't have a suspect in custody.

The suspect in Brown's shooting is described as a black male wearing a dark hoodie, gray T-shirt and light-colored blue jeans and carrying a handgun.

The suspect in the other shooting at Logan Street and Diamond Avenue is described as a 5-foot-6 black male around the age of 22 wearing red clothing.

Anyone with information on either shooting is asked to contact GRPD at 616.456.3604 or Silent Observer at 616.774.2345.