Six people are dead after a shooting in Missaukee County, and Michigan State Police said the suspect was also among the dead. One other person was left in critical condition.
The case is drawing attention now because troopers were first called around 11:40 in the morning to a residence on LaChance Road after someone reported being shot, then found three people dead and another person critically injured when they arrived. Investigators later found two more deceased people at separate locations, including one near a wooded area by Whitlock Lake and another inside a different residence.
That is why the death count climbed as the search widened. What began as a response to one reported shooting turned into a multi-scene investigation spread across more than one location, with police later saying the suspect, Chad Hickman, was 39 years old. The sequence matters because the scenes were not all found at once, and the final count only came together after investigators checked the surrounding area and the other residence.
Michigan State Police said there was no threat to the public even as the number of dead rose and patrols remained active in the community. That assurance sits next to the scale of the loss: six dead, one critically injured, and a case that pulled investigators in several directions at once.
MSP Public Information Officer Lt. Ashley Miller said the response was hard on investigators, troopers and the community, and described the loss as tragic. She also said the agency would conduct a thorough investigation and keep residents updated as new information is uncovered. For now, the central unanswered question is how the shooting unfolded across the different scenes and what led to the deaths at LaChance Road and the other locations.
