Stepmom: WMU shooter protecting friend

KALAMAZOO, Mich. (WOOD) - A man who will turn 20 on Wednesday faces felony charges for allegedly firing a gun into the air in a crowd of about 200 WMU students. But his stepmother said he was just trying to protect a friend.

Police said an officer keeping an eye on the large group of college students witnessed the gunplay, chased the shooter and found him hiding nearby.

Patrick Russell has had previous brushes with the law for drug possession, assault and resisting the police. He now faces a weapons offense and possession of a stolen gun.

But his stepmother, Tifany Bailey-Mitchell, said, "It's not who he is."

She said Russell fired the gun into the air to scare away a group of young men who previously stabbed a friend of his and were coming after his friend again.

"He was trying to protect a friend and he's always that way," Bailey-Mitchell said. "He's always been very protective."

The mother of Russell's infant son, Shavonda Wells, told 24 Hour News 8 she's known him since he was 10-years-old and said he's a decent guy who takes care of his son. Russell, she said, was about to start college classes

"Everything is about his son," she said. "Like he's always, 'We're going to do this for my son.' I want my son, you know, he wants him to grow up differently from how he did."

If he's convicted, Russell faces time in prison.