Rochester Hills splash pad reopens weeks after mass shooting

Lina Portman3 days ago

0 2 minutes read

Rochester Hills — Although the Fourth of July brought drizzle and gray skies, that didn't stop at least some families from enjoying the Brooklands Plaza Splash Pad the day after it reopened for the first time since a mass shooting two and a half weeks ago.

The city said it reopened the facility on the advice of the Oakland County Sheriff's Office and mental health advocates who spoke with victims of the June 15 shooting, which injured nine people.

“The Splash Pad has always been a gathering place for our community, and as we saw at Festival of the Hills last week, our community craves that connection,” the city said in an update on its website. “The Splash Pad will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week. There will be an additional public safety presence in the area as well as information available about resources through the Oakland Community Health Network.”

Rochester Hills resident Kelly Moore lives near the splash pad and was surprised to see it open. She spent time splashing around with her husband and two children on a hot, humid afternoon after enjoying an ice cream from Brain Freeze across the street.

“I'm shocked that this site has been opened so soon, I think it's incredible,” said Moore, 40. “It's the kind of experience where the sooner we get back to normal and using it, the more we'll get used to using it.”

Moore said she thinks visibility and community support are good ways forward. She saw people running around in the wading pool “like they used to” Wednesday.

“It’s a real fear and whatever everyone is feeling is normal,” Moore said. “But one of the most powerful ways to overcome that fear is to come together as a community, like supporting local businesses, but also coming together where something like this has happened and understanding that it was a coincidence.”[…]The best thing we can do, again, is come together as a community and support each other.”

A gunman got out of a car at the splash pad on the evening of June 15 and fired 36 shots from a semi-automatic handgun, wounding nine people, including two children, police said. Eight of the nine victims had been released from the hospital as of Wednesday, according to the city’s update. The shooter died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound the night of the shooting.

A 39-year-old mother who was shot multiple times while trying to protect her children is the only victim still hospitalized, the Oakland County Sheriff's Office said Monday. Several of the victims who have been released are still suffering from healing and health issues, the sheriff's office said last week. Links to verified fundraisers for five of the victims' families can be found here.

On Thursday, signs on the splash pad promoted mental health resources, including the 988 crisis hotline, the Oakland Community Health Network phone number and the Oakland County Nurse on-call phone number.

Christopher Brent, 44, of Grand Blanc, took his six children to visit their grandparents in Rochester Hills for the holidays. They also live in the neighborhood of the splash pad, so the kids were familiar with the facility and four of them wanted to go Thursday, so they did.

“I think it’s a good thing to open it up and let people get back to normal,” Brent said. “I’m not going to say no to my kids because I should do that for everything, we should do that for any place I go.”

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Lina Portman

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