OSHTEMO TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — Investigators are looking for one of the people who opened fire in a liquor store parking lot just west of Kalamazoo last week.

The shooting, which the Kalamazoo County sheriff described as “brazen,” happened around 12:30 p.m. Feb. 23 outside the Bronco Liquor Store at W. KL Avenue and Drake Road in Oshtemo Township.

Sheriff Richard Fuller said during a Thursday news conference that there was some sort of interaction inside the liquor store between the two shooters and the victim.

“I wouldn’t even call it a confrontation at this point. It sounds like it was just a conversation between the victim and the suspects,” Fuller said. “I can tell you that it seemed less than you would expect from the outcome of the case.”

Surveillance video released by the sheriff’s office shows the shooters follow the victim out of the store, at which point they exchanged additional words. As he got in his car, they drew their guns and fired several shots.

“Look at all the traffic on Drake Road,” Fuller said. “Those bullets didn’t stop at the edge of the parking lot.”

Karissa Sorenson works at a restaurant next door to the liquor store and was working when shots were fired.

Bronco Liquor Store at W. KL Avenue and Drake Road in Oshtemo Township on March 2, 2023.
Bronco Liquor Store at W. KL Avenue and Drake Road in Oshtemo Township on March 2, 2023.

“I was at the counter just helping some customers. Then all the sudden we just heard a couple shots and it kind of sounded like a car backfire,” she said. “I could see the guy stand there shooting and after that he just like ran to his car and then they drove off real fast.”

In the video, you can also see someone carrying a pizza box running to a car to take cover.

“I got really nervous and scared because I didn’t know that was going to happen because if he was going to run in front of our window or just start shooting at us,” Sorenson said.

The victim drove away. The shooters got in a black sedan and left. The sheriff noted that the person who was driving the sedan did not seem to have been involved. Investigators have talked to the driver as a witness.

One of the suspects has been arrested but the other has not. The sheriff’s office released the surveillance images in the hopes of finding that second suspect, any witnesses and any vehicles that may have been struck by gunfire.

“I’m asking for any possible victims that may have found evidence on their vehicle of a bullet mark or had seen something or had heard something at this location at this time to help them know that they can come forward to the sheriff’s office,” Fuller said.

The Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Office can be reached at 269.488.8911, or you can call Silent Observer at 269.343.2100.

The suspect who was already arrested, whose name was not released Thursday, faces charges of reckless discharge of a firearm, being a felon in possession of a firearm, carrying a concealed weapon and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.

“In the middle of the day in parking lot next to a busy road, these things happen, and this is why we talk all the time about trying to remove as many guns from the streets as we can,” Fuller said. “This is why law enforcement has actually been involved in more pursuits with vehicles that have firearms in them and we are working every day to keep not only the public safe, but our law enforcement processionals and anybody just going to a store as safe as possible.”

—News 8’s Kyle Mitchell contributed to this report.