Police have no suspects in 2 Toledo homicides

1 victim had 2 daughters, planned to go to college

Williams

Williams

A man who was one of two shot and killed in Toledo on Sunday had two daughters and planned to go to college but his mother said his violent death confirmed her fears for him.

“He was a people person but he was also a street person ... I miss him, but... I knew it was coming sooner or later,” Felicia Williams, 48, said.

The shooting was reported at 4:18 a.m., when police received a call about multiple shots fired in the vicinity of Ottawa Drive and Auburn Avenue in West Toledo. Michael Williams, Jr., 24, was found dead between the Auburn Mini Mart and a closed Adams Laundry & Cleaners. The incident was believed to have occurred in front of a small church.

The shooting was one of two reported homicides Sunday.

Police are seeking information about a silver, General Motors sport utility vehicle that they said followed Michael Macklin, Jr., from Club Ellyzees in downtown Toledo.

Toledo police Detective Tim Campbell said police had no motive and no suspects in the shooting. Mr. Williams has a history of drug-related charges but police did not say whether that could be a factor.

“He was no gang banger,” Ms. Williams, a mother of six, said. “Anyone who needed anything from him ... he was there for them.”

Mr. Williams had two daughters, 4 and 6 years old, who live with their mother. He liked to spend time with them, Ms. Williams said.

Ms. Williams said her son liked playing basketball. He played for Lincoln Elementary School and then later for Scott High School, from which he dropped out in his senior year — two months before graduation — without saying why, she said.

“He was a smart kid,” she said.

Mr. Williams recently got his GED and told his mother he had just signed up for classes at Owens Community College, she said.

The fatal shooting occurred barely three hours after Michael Macklin, Jr., 20, was shot about 1:12 a.m. in East Toledo. Police divulged no information about his background.

Mr. Macklin was shot while in his car as he tried to flee from others who may have gotten into an altercation with him at a downtown Toledo drinking establishment, police said. He was taken by ambulance to Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead shortly after 8 a.m.

Toledo police on Monday were hoping someone could help them identify a light-metallic colored SUV in video footage they said was captured by a Toledo police camera at the corner of Front and Main shortly before Mr. Macklin was shot at Greenwood and Walden avenues, a few blocks away. Police released a photograph from the footage of the SUV.

Authorities believe the vehicle followed Mr. Macklin when he left Club Ellyzees, 319 N. Superior St.

Police released no motive and said there were no suspects.

While police said they have not ruled out the possibility of a connection between the deaths, they appear to be unrelated.

Autopsies on both victims were performed Monday at the Lucas County Coroner’s Office. The deaths were ruled homicides.

Dr. Diane Barnett, a Lucas County deputy coroner who did an autopsy on Mr. Williams, said he suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the head and a nonfatal gunshot wound to the right thigh.

Lucas County Deputy Coroner Dr. Cynthia Beisser, who performed Mr. Macklin’s autopsy, said he died of two gunshot wounds. One bullet struck him in the jaw and then traveled down into the neck and the other hit him in the back of the left shoulder, with the neck wound being "more immediately fatal," she said.

Contact Mike Sigov at: sigov@theblade.com, 419-724-6089, or on Twitter @mikesigovblade.