Man charged in Dowagiac apartment shooting
Published 5:31 pm Friday, April 22, 2016
A Benton Harbor man was charged Friday in connection with the recent shooting at a Dowagiac apartment complex earlier this month, according to a release from the Dowagiac Police Department.
Karl Kelvin Ross Jr., 29, was arraigned in Cass County District Court Friday, where he was charged with discharging a firearm in or at a building, assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder, carrying a dangerous weapon with unlawful intent, felon in possession of a firearm and felony firearm. He is currently being held on $200,000 bond.
Ross is suspected of firing several shots from a medium caliber handgun into an occupied second-floor apartment at the Eagle’s Trace Apartments complex in Dowagiac during the early morning hours of April 11.
According to police, the shooting stemmed from a verbal altercation that took place between Ross and another individual living at the complex in one of the parking lots around 8:30 p.m. earlier that evening, over non-payment of a drug deal between the two. When confronted by the suspect, the Eagle’s Trace resident fled into an apartment.
While Ross initially left the scene following the confrontation, he returned around 12:35 a.m., firing several shots into the glass door of an apartment occupied by five adults and child. The suspect then fled in away in a vehicle driven by another individual.
The apartment Ross is suspected of firing at was not occupied by the individual he confronted earlier that evening, as the occupants had nothing to do with the prior incident, police say. None of the occupants were injured during the attack.
Officers of the Dowagiac Police Department and detectives with the Cass County Drug Enforcement Team investigated the shooting, eventually identifying the occupants of the vehicle involved with the incident. Ross was identified as the suspected shooter by witnesses, police say.
Ross was arrested early Friday morning by officers with the St. Joseph Police Department and was turned over to the Dowagiac Police Department, and was later lodged at Cass County Jail in Cassopolis.
This incident remains under investigation by the Dowagiac Police Department. Anyone with information is asked to contact Dowagiac Police at (269) 782-9743, the Cass County Tip-Line at (800) 462-9328, or Crime Stoppers at (800) 342-STOP (7867).