GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Grand Rapids police are investigating the city’s 35th homicide this year after a man was shot and killed Sunday.

The Grand Rapids Police Department said around 9 p.m. officers tried to stop a car that was driving erratically in the area of Burton Street and Division Avenue. The car crashed into a building just west of the intersection.

  • The scene where a car crashed into a building at Burton Street SE and Division Avenue in Grand Rapids on Dec. 6, 2020. The driver, police discovered, had been shot and died later at the hospital. (Dec. 7, 2020)
  • The scene where a car crashed into a building at Burton Street SE and Division Avenue in Grand Rapids on Dec. 6, 2020. The driver, police discovered, had been shot and died later at the hospital. (Dec. 7, 2020)

Officers found out the driver had a gunshot wound to the chest. The victim, a 23-year-old man, was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead, according to a GRPD news release.

On Tuesday, police identified the victim as Michael George Eastwood of Plainfield Township.

Police said the homicide may be connected to a shots fired call that happened around the same time in the area of Burton Street and Collins Avenue SE.

There are no suspects at this time.

Anyone with information is asked to call GRPD detectives at 616.456.3380 or Silent Observer at 616.774.2345.

The homicide was Grand Rapids’ 35th of 2020, with the city averaging one death about every week and a half. The total is about triple the average number of homicides within the previous six years.

The city’s previous record for homicides in a single year was 34, set in 1993.