A gunman opened fire at a Michigan splash park on Saturday in what the authorities said was a random attack that left nine people injured, including two children, one of whom was in critical condition.
An official with the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office identified the suspect as Michael William Nash, 42. He was later found dead in a nearby home, the police said.
The shooting occurred at Brooklands Plaza Splash Pad in Rochester Hills, Mich., a Detroit suburb, the authorities said. Officers were called to the scene just after 5 p.m.
“It appears to be a random active shooter,” Michael Bouchard, the Oakland County sheriff, said at a news conference.
“It appears like the individual pulled up, exited a vehicle, approached the splash pad, opened fire, reloaded, opened fire, reloaded, left,” he said.
Images shared to social media showed a crowd of police and emergency medical workers surrounding a park. Officials could be seen tending to a person on the wet ground of a splash pad — a play area for children fitted with nozzles that spray water — as officers moved bystanders away.
Among the injured were an 8-year-old boy who was shot in the head and a 39-year-old woman who was shot in the abdomen and leg, Sheriff Bouchard said at the news conference on Saturday night. Both were in critical condition. Those two people, along with a 4-year-old boy who was shot in the thigh, were from one family, he said.
The remaining victims, including a married couple, were all in stable condition, he said.
At a news conference on Sunday, David Coulter, the Oakland County executive, said three of the victims, including the 8-year-old boy, underwent operations on Saturday evening. No additional updates on their conditions were available.
Mayor Bryan Barnett of Rochester Hills said a city employee was among the people spending an afternoon at the splash pad on Saturday, along with 14 of his family members and friends. Three members of the group were injured, including the city employee’s wife, who was shot in the abdomen and suffered a broken arm. It was not clear whether she was one of the victims who underwent surgery on Saturday.
A Glock 9-millimeter handgun and three empty magazines were recovered at the scene, the sheriff said, adding that the gunman fired up to 28 times.
The police used the handgun and other evidence to track the man to a home in nearby Shelby Township, Sheriff Bouchard said. They tried but failed to communicate with him, and found him dead inside when they eventually entered the home, he said.
On the kitchen table, they found what appeared to be a semiautomatic rifle, the sheriff said, suggesting that “there was probably something else, a second chapter, potentially.”
The suspect was believed to have lived with his mother, who was not home at the time, the sheriff said. He was apparently undergoing mental health challenges, but had no prior contact with police, he added.
Rochester Hills is roughly 25 miles north of Detroit and home to about 76,000 people.
This is the second mass shooting the county has experienced in recent years. In 2021, a student at Oxford High School fatally shot four of his classmates and injured seven others.
“We’re getting all too good at this, and I’m disgusted by it,” Mr. Coulter said, referring to responding to mass shootings.
