Police: passenger shooting not random

WYOMING, Mich. (WOOD) - Police now say a Wyoming man, gunned down Sunday night, was the victim of a drug crime and not a random armed robbery.

Michael Bockheim, 29, died in the shooting, family members told 24 Hour News 8.

"Michael was a very special person," said his aunt, Mary Ann Doyle. "He was very happy go-lucky. He was a person that you always wanted to be around."

Initially, the scene of the crime was believed to be the intersection of Clyde Park and Burton in Wyoming. But on Tuesday, police said he was a passenger in a van when he was shot in the parking lot of the Arbor Lane apartment complex in Kentwood.

At first, the driver told investigators he was stopped at the light at Clyde Park when two men, one armed with a handgun approached him, demanding money and shot Bockheim.

At the time of the shooting, around 8:30 p.m. Sunday, Jacob Richardson was running the cash register at the BP gas station on that corner.

He said the incident was "a surprise to me. I didn't see nothing. All I seen was police all coming to the gas station asking a bunch of questions."

Monday afternoon the case took a different turn. The driver told police it happened somewhere in Kentwood.

And it doesn't appear to be random.

"I don't know that it was a premeditated case," Kentwood Police Chief Richard Mattice told 24 Hour News 8. "But it was a case that did involve criminal activity to begin with, that meaning there was a potential drug sale occurring at the time of the homicide."

The driver took Bockheim to a home near Bayberry and Byron Center Avenue. Apparently there was someone in that house who the driver thought could help.

After CPR efforts, Bockheim died at the house.

Bockheim does not have a criminal record. His family is at a loss to explain why it happened.

"We're trying to be a family and hold it together and try to find out why something this senseless happened and deal with what's going to happen the next couple of days which isn't going to be easy for any of us," Doyle said. "We would like answers," Doyle said. "We would like some answers."

It's the first homicide in Kentwood in two years. Mattice said they hope to have more details on the when, where and why of the case sometime Tuesday.

If you have any information, you're asked to contact the Kentwood Police detective bureau at 616.456.6600, or Silent Observer .