By Amber Hunt
Detroit Free Press
Copyright 2007 The Detroit Free Press
DETROIT — It began as a fatal shooting on Detroit’s east side, turned into a manhunt in Sterling Heights and ended with a suicide in downtown Detroit.
That’s how police describe an apparent murder-suicide that left a Sterling Heights couple dead and their 9-year-old son injured.
The couple — LaDora Gibson, 38, and Anthony Gibson, 41 — were headed to a relative’s home in Detroit when Anthony Gibson shot his wife, killing her, police said.
Gibson, a Detroit emergency medical technician, also shot his 9-year-old son — though police said that shooting appears to have been accidental. The boy is in temporary serious condition.
That shooting occurred at Saratoga and Kelly on Saturday night.
Afterward, Detroit police alerted Sterling Heights police, who surrounded the couple’s Wilmington Court home and told neighbors to stay away from windows and doors.
“It was a scary situation for me and my grandson,” said Michele Charbeneau, 74, who lives a few houses away from the couple on the cul-de-sac.
She said police called about 10:30 p.m. and told her there was a disturbance on the street. Her home doesn’t have a basement, so she and her 12-year-old grandson took refuge in their sunken den.
“The SWAT team was there,” Charbeneau said. “They stormed the house. I knew he had to have done something to lead up to it.”
Officers shouted through bullhorns to the home, trying to reach Gibson, she said.
But police said Gibson wasn’t there. At 9:45 a.m. today, he shot himself while parked outside a home on Nicolet Place, near Rivard and East Lafayette.
“I don’t know what transpired between them to cause the shooting,” said Deputy Chief Joyce Motley of the Eastern District, where the first shooting occurred.
The couple had more than one child — neither Charbeneau, the neighbor, nor Motley knew how many — but they weren’t in the car when Gibson shot himself.
Police are still investigating.