WXYZ-TV Detroit’s Glenda Lewis and Simon Shaykhet opened 7 News Detroit with words that matched the moment: a “shocking murder” outside a Westland Kroger. They told viewers a Salvation Army bell ringer was shot and killed, right in the crush of last-minute holiday shopping.
The person killed was later identified by WXYZ reporter Randy Wimbley as 47-year-old Alvin Echols. In Wimbley’s reporting, the shooting happened at the Kroger on Ford Road, and it left shoppers and employees rattled.
A bell ringer is usually the gentlest part of a grocery run. You hear the bell, you see the red kettle, you nod or toss in a couple dollars, and you keep moving…