DETROIT (WXYZ) — A mother was killed and her 16-year-old son was critically injured after a shooting in Detroit Wednesday evening in what police say was “an argument that went too far.”
It happened around 8:10 p.m. on Runyon Street near Park Grove on the city's east side.
Tasneen Sherrod, 42, was shot and killed while trying to protect her 16-year-old son, who was also shot and remains in critical condition.
"I didn't think yesterday was going to be my last day ever talking to her," said Stacey Sherrod, Tasneen Sherrod's cousin. "It's one of the worst days of my life."
Detroit Police said the shooter fled the location and is still being sought.
“It’s just one of those things that doesn’t make sense. You got two people over here, associates hanging out. All of a sudden, they get in an argument, it escalates, we got two people shot. It’s just ridiculous,” a police official said.
And it's not the first time tragedy has struck the family. In January 2022, Sherrod's 15-year-old son Robert Harris was shot and killed at a gas station on Detroit's east side.
At the time, the grieving mother told reporters that Robert was killed trying to protect his younger brother who was 14.
Police said the 2022 shooting stemmed from an argument on social media.
It's unclear what Wednesday night's argument was about that resulted in Sherrod trying to de-escalate the situation and get her son, now 16, back in the house.
"My family, we're hurting right now because we had a great loss, but, as a community, we're losing people, and people are giving up hope," said Pastor Tanisha Hayes, also a cousin, who eulogized Sherrod's 15-year-old son at his funeral two years ago.
Hayes said too often people, including teenagers, are resolving their disputes with guns instead of de-escalating the situation.
"I feel we have to be re-loved and re-educated about how to deescalate from our anger when our anger has been our prominent emotion about everything," she said. "I understand you're angry, but don't kill anyone because you're angry. You don't have to. You could really just walk away."
Detroit Police urge anyone with information about the case or the shooter to call homicide investigators at 313-596-2260.
