Detroit Shooting Spree: Lone survivor reflects on 2022 shooting

Dontae Smith, who was 19 at the time of the shooting spree in August of that year, entered a guilty plea. The gunshots happened early on August 28 in the Wyoming area, close to 7 Mile. Despite being shot, one guy and his dog managed to survive. John Palik, the survivor, tells FOX 2 that he feels terrible for the families of the victims. However, he also feels sorry for the suspect.

DETROIT (FOX 2):On Wednesday, a defendant entered a guilty plea to the 2022 shooting spree in Detroit that claimed three lives.

Dontae Smith, who was 19 at the time of the shooting spree in August of that year, entered a guilty plea. The gunshots happened early on August 28 in the Wyoming area, close to 7 Mile.

Despite being shot, one guy and his dog managed to survive. John Palik, the survivor, tells FOX 2 that he feels terrible for the families of the victims. However, he also feels sorry for the suspect.

Palik and his dog Kingston are doing well two years after the tragedy. Smith shot the red-nose pitbull in 2022.

“I believe it’s good. “The problem is that if he had been found guilty, he could have been granted parole without receiving treatment,” Palik explained. “He needs treatment.”

Palik, who was 76 years old at the time of the shooting, said that he and Kingston were out for a stroll on 7 Mile and Pennington on a typical August morning when he noticed a suspicious-looking individual.

He dismissed it and continued to move.

“Then all of a sudden two shots came out, and he got the first shot in his leg and I turned around, and that s why I say he saved my life, because then I got shot right in the thigh,” claimed the man.

According to Palik, a neighbor who witnessed the incident shot at the perpetrator before another arrived to assist him and Kingston.

“He was obviously aware of something. It went all the way through, he claims. He therefore required a tourniquet. According to Palik, he returned home, grabbed a belt, and applied a tourniquet.

He later claims that after being taken to the hospital, he and Kingston were informed that no arteries had been damaged.

“I m very pleased that his family stepped up when they saw and turned him in,” he stated.

According to Palik, the kindness his neighbor showed him that day will stick in his memory the most.

Palik said that on February 28, when the relatives of the victims are due to testify, he will be back in court.

Smith has a sentence agreement with the Michigan Department of Corrections that ranges from 28 to 50 years. The date of his sentence is February 28.

Highlighted

Dontae Smith entered a guilty plea for the August 2022 shooting spree he carried out at the age of 19.

The people Smith shot were:

• 
  Chayne Lewis Lee, 28, of Detroit
  
• 
  Location:19880 block of Wyoming at 4:45 a.m.
  

“Defendant Smith is accused of shooting Mr. Lee several times, and after he collapsed to the ground, Smith allegedly kept shooting Mr. Smith. Detroit police officers found his lifeless body in a church doorway. According to the prosecutor’s office, the defendant allegedly left the scene by foot.

• 
  Jane Doe
  
• 
  Location: Wyoming and Margareta at 5:23 a.m.
  

Officers from Detroit were called to a scene where a resident reported hearing several gunshots and seeing a slim, dark-clad man strolling east on Margareta Street. Multiple gunshot wounds were seen on the body of a woman.

• 
  Lari Brisco, 43, of Detroit
  
• 
  Location: 19790 block of Livernois at 6:53 a.m.