A critically wounded 13-year-old girl, shot multiple times by a Lake City man on a shooting spree that left three other family members dead in the girl's home, was able to call 911, alert authorities and identify the shooter as Chad Hickman, a family member said on social media.
Hickman's alleged rampage left another man dead at a second location in Missaukee County, and a woman was found dead in a wooded area near Whitlock Lake alongside Hickman, who police believe took his own life.
State police on Saturday released only the ages and genders of the victims in the shooting spree. But David Everitt, a Cadillac resident, on Facebook identified his daughter, Amanda Everitt, as among those killed by alleged gunman Chad Hickman, 39, of Lake City.
"The world just lost two beautiful people and one is clinging to life ... My daughter Amanda and her two beautiful children were shot in their home yesterday. Amanda and her son eric went home to be with god and our granddaughter Bella is clinging to life in a Grand Rapids hospital," he posted.
David Everitt later in the post noted, "Prayers for Bella who while shot 4 times still managed to call 911 and identify the shooter ... She is a hero."
Family members at David Everitt's home said he wasn't available for comment on Saturday.
Mike Davidson lives on South Blodgett Road less than 2 miles from the house where three of the slayings occurred.
“This is what everybody is talking about, everybody that I ran into today, everybody’s talking about it in all of the smaller communities around here. It seems like everybody knew at least one person involved in it. It’s really had an impact; it’s led to a lot of scared people.”
Detectives from the Michigan State Police Cadillac Post, throughout Friday and into Saturday, investigated three crime scenes in the county. Investigators pieced together a preliminary timeline of events:
- At approximately 11:40 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 14, troopers were dispatched to a home on South LaChance Road in Lake Township for a report of a 13-year-old girl who had been shot. She was transported to a local hospital in critical condition, and according to police, she remains hospitalized and is now listed in stable condition.
- Police found three other people shot dead at the South LaChance Road home: a 45-year-old male, 40-year-old female and 16-year-old male.
- With Hickman gone from the South LaChance Road home, police undertook a massive search, with state police bringing in aviation, K-9, and emergency support teams. The search led police to a second home a few miles away in Missaukee County, where they found a 53-year-old male dead.
- Police eventually found Hickman's vehicle in a wooded area at Whitlock Lake in Caldwell Township in the county, where they discovered a deceased 29-year-old female alongside Hickman.
Hickman had violent history, court records show
Court records show Hickman had a criminal conviction for child abuse and a stormy divorce with accusations of domestic abuse. Michigan State Police said they found Hickman dead in a wooded area of Missaukee County's Caldwell Township about 25 miles west of Houghton Lake.
Court records show that in January 2024, Hickman was arraigned on four felony and five misdemeanor charges in Missaukee County. Prosecutors accused him of assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder by strangulation. They also charged him with two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and one count of interfering with electronic communications.
The misdemeanor charges at the time were one count of domestic violence, three counts of fourth-degree child abuse and one count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
In August 2024, Hickman pleaded guilty to one count of fourth-degree child abuse and one count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. All other charges were dismissed, according to online court records.
A judge sentenced Hickman to a year in the county jail.
Hickman's 2023 divorce from his wife, Katie Hickman, was so bitter that he posted parts of the court file on his Facebook page, thanking the judge for being "way to f---ing smart to believe my ex wife's bull---- story."
The records show the couple married in 2011. Katie Hickman was injured in an accident and received a lawsuit settlement. The pair used that money to start a business buying and renovating homes to rent or sell.
The marriage eventually soured and they separated and tried reconciling.
Hickman testified in the case that he attempted to separate from his wife in December 2023 after she set up online dating profiles, according to the court filings posted online on his Facebook page. He also accused his wife of "sex bombing" him as a way of reconciling with him.
"It is uncontested that this marriage involved allegations and incidents of domestic violence which lie at the heart of the issues before the court," Judge Melissa Ransom wrote in an opinion in the case also posted on Facebook. "Testimony and evidence presented by both parties confirm that the relationship was marked by significant disfunction and mutual toxicity."
Gunshots nothing new in Lake Township — only the mass violence
Vicki Gunnerson lives next door to the home on South LaChance Road where three people were shot and killed and a fourth wounded. She said Amanda Everitt was once a niece to her via marriage.
Hearing gunshots, even a lot of them, is nothing new in rural Lake Township, Gunnerson said.
“There are gunshots here all the time,” she said. “You hear them at all hours of the day or night, from every direction, every angle.”
As a Free Press reporter was talking with Gunnerson, as if to prove the point, a number of shots could be heard fired in rapid succession, not too far away.
But just before noon on Friday, Gunnerson experienced something unexpected: the police urgently at her door.
“I was coming, and he kind of opened the door and yelled in, ‘Did somebody get shot here?’” she said. “I said no, and he said, ‘Well the shots are coming from this property.’”
Police were on Gunnerson’s property and next door well into early Saturday morning. She called the spree of violence coming so close to home "very shocking."
“I was scared, I wanted to get the heck out of here,” she said. “I was the only one here.”
Chad Hickman as a small child came to live briefly with Vicki Gunnerson and her husband, Steve, now deceased, decades ago, she said. The couple knew Hickman’s parents, and they came to live with them for a while, along with three of their children, including Chad.
“I remember Chad when he was a little kid, they stayed with us for a little while. And I remember later he worked at the ABC Warehouse. I thought he looked like a nice young man back then, but we’re talking years ago, and I never knew him personally or was around him or his wife.”
The shootings have shaken this rural community of about 2,800, an area where acres of open land often separate neighbors.
“We’ve never had [violence] to this level,” said Lake Township Supervisor Rob Hall. “I don’t think anybody really even knows what to think.”
Contact Keith Matheny: kmatheny@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Northern Michigan mass shooting: 'It's led to a lot of scared people'
