LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — June 29 is a day Dennis James will never forget — the day his teenage son was shot and killed on the west side of Lansing in what he believes to be a gang-related event.
“Ever since I got the phone call, I’ve been heartbroken,” said James. “And it’s probably going to be like that forever, but you know, you learn to deal with grief in time.”
The deaths of 15-year-old Deron James and 19-year-old Lovaya Rodriguez are just two of the shootings that happened in Lansing last month, and while city leaders have historically downplayed the existence of gangs, recent court testimony from an LPD officer says otherwise.
Now, police say the city has a “hybrid” gang problem and the Ingham County Prosecutor’s Office believes both James and Rodriguez’s deaths to be gang-related…