Victims of Ionia shooting ask 'why?'

IONIA, Mich. (WOOD) - Two men are recovering Friday night after getting shot earlier in the day by a man they claim they barely knew.

Cody Philips and Troy Townsend were standing on Townsend's front porch on the 900 block of West Main Street on Friday afternoon when they noticed some police activity in the home across the street.

Police were on scene, but the two men say they didn't think much of it since no one told them to go inside.

All of a sudden, the two men say, they were both shot. At first, both said they didn't realize what had happened.

"I just heard it at first and I didn't know I got hit until somebody said something," said Townsend.

"All I knew I hurt I just felt like I was in a lot of pain," said Philips.  

Philips said the force of the blast pushed him up against the wall of the home and knocked him on the ground. He described not knowing what was happening, coming to, and seeing blood in his eyes.

The two men said they hardly knew the shooter, who lived on the 900 block of West Main. Philips said he saw and waved to the man for the first time Friday morning as the suspect was using a weed whacker out front.

Both said they didn't even know the man's name.

24 Hour News 8 learned that police came out to the suspect's home on Friday to check on him.

"What I heard is he called a family member who said he wanted to kill himself and they came out to check on him and he shot his dog before he came outside," said Townsend.

The suspect shot across the street hitting both men with bird shot. One discharge of his weapon released more than a hundred pellets, each only a fraction of the size of a dime.

The suspect then continued to walk down the sidewalk, and shot at a deputy. The suspect missed, and the deputy fired back -- killing the suspect.

Philips was hit with 79 pellets. He told 24 Hour News 8 that doctors told him he was lucky the projectiles didn't go too far into his body.

"At the hospital the doctor said if it wasn't for our size we wouldn't have been here it would have killed us," said Philips. "Thank God for being big."

Philips told 24 Hour News 8 the pellets will have to work their way out of him over the next seven months. He said the doctors told him it would be more dangerous to remove than to keep them in.

Both men told 24 Hour News 8 they were relieved to hear the suspect had been killed, and say they are still confused as to why a stranger would shoot them.

"If [he] wanted to [kill himself] that's on him," said Philips. "But he don't have to take other people's lives with him."

Police said they will not release the suspect's name until they contact his next of kin.