Friday, February 20 marks the 10th anniversary of the 2016 mass shooting in which a Cooper Township man killed six people and wounded two others at three separate locations in Kalamazoo County.
Those killed were Tyler Smith, 17, Richard Smith, 53,
Mary Jo Nye, 60, Mary Lou Nye, 62, Dorothy Brown, 74, and Barbara Hawthorne, 68.
Abigail Kopf, then 14, and Tiana Carruthers, then 25, were severely wounded during the attacks. Carruthers was shot multiple times while protecting a group of children.
The perpetrator committed some of the crimes in between picking up fares for the ride-hailing service Uber.
Kalamazoo County Sheriff Rick Fuller had been at his post for eight years when it happened. He said he has reflected on the shootings many times in the past decade.
"It's not just February. It's every time I drive by certain locations, I drive by the old Cracker Barrel out there. Or if I drive by the car dealership or up in Richland Township by the apartments."
The shootings took place at an apartment complex in Richland Township, a car dealership on Stadium Drive in the city of Kalamazoo and the Cracker Barrel in Texas Township.
There are also ways Fuller said he chooses not to reflect, avoiding speaking the name of the perpetrator, and never using nicknames for the event.
“I don't like the cute nicknames," Fuller said. "This is a very involved and ugly case and to give it a nickname is just, I don't know. I think it's a poor way of dealing with the families involved.”
Fuller also remembers what officers did right on that day, adding that strong communication between local law enforcement agencies was essential to catching the shooter, who’s been serving a life sentence since 2019.
"I would say that those connections that we have every day working on the street together and in the investigations that we do together and all the cooperation we have," Fuller said. "That was huge.”
ForeverStrong Memorial Foundation
Laurie Smith lost her husband Rich and 17-year-old son Tyler in the shooting on Stadium Drive.
In 2017, Smith and her daughter founded the ForeverStrong Memorial Foundation to honor the victims and the five area cyclists killed by a driver a few months later.
ForeverStrong initially sought to build a soccer facility in honor of Tyler as well as a separate memorial.
In a statement to WMUK, Smith said these are no longer the main goal of the foundation.
"The physical Memorial has not been the focus that God has led us toward, but rather over the past nine years, ForeverStrong has hosted community events, provided healing through therapy dogs, awarded scholarships, and offered grief support and care packages to those navigating loss," Smith wrote.
She added that the foundation has been a godsend to her and her daughter, allowing them to "turn pain into purpose and loss into love."
In a follow-up statement, Smith announced ForeverStrong's 10 Acts of Light Challenge.
She said the challenge would take place in the ten days following February 20th, asking people to commit an act of kindness each day in "remembrance of the six lives lost, and in honor of the three who survived."
Smith says these acts of kindness don't need to be flashy. Examples include writing a note of encouragement, paying for the coffee of the next person in line, or simply texting someone, “I was thinking about you.”
Western Michigan University changes alert system
In the days that followed the 2016 mass shootings, Western Michigan University students complained that they received no alert from the university.
According to WMU Department of Public Safety Chief of Police Scott Merlo, this was because the shootings occurred off-campus, meaning they did not meet the requirements for a federally-mandated alert.
But then-President John Dunn apologized, and suggested the university should have warned students and staff regardless.
Merlo said WMU now sends text message advisories for incidents that don't meet the requirements for a phone call alert, including ongoing emergency threats near campus.
He added that under this system, if an incident like the 2016 shooting were to happen in the community again, WMU would send out an advisory.
