Detroit block party mass shooting was the state's worst since at least 2013

Detroit police say they continue to investigate Sunday's mass shooting at an east-side block party that killed two and injured 19, but there have been no arrests.

"No leads at this time," Sgt. Daron Zhou wrote in a text to the Free Press on Tuesday afternoon. "Homicide Task Force is still actively investigating the case."

Several victims' conditions have improved and some have been discharged from the hospital, Zhou said. He did not provide specific numbers of victims still in the hospital or their conditions.

Anyone with information is asked to call the police department's major crimes unit at 313-596-2260 or Crime Stoppers at 800-SPEAK-UP.

The shooting ranks as Michigan's largest mass shooting in recent history.

The state's second-largest mass shooting took place just last year at a street party in Saginaw, where 13 people were shot, two fatally, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive that goes back to 2013.

"We have more guns on the street; more people carry guns," said Mark Bryant, executive director of the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit formed to track gun violence in the U.S. "And if there's a party, or a concert, or a bar, or a parking lot outside a bar … when one gun comes out, 10 guns come out; so one person doesn't get shot, a bunch of people get shot."

There's no single consensus on the definition of a mass shooting. The Gun Violence Archive (GVA) defines a mass shooting as an incident where four or more people are injured or killed by gunfire, not including the suspect.

Since 2013, there have been 166 mass shootings in Michigan, including 11 incidents in the first half of this year. Nearly half of the mass shootings, 80, took place in the state's most populous city, Detroit.

Michigan recorded its highest-to-date number of mass shootings in a year — 25 — in 2021; the same year, a student killed four students and injured six students and a teacher at Oxford High School.

In Chicago, three mass shootings took place from July 1- July 7; 27 people were killed and 100 were injured, according to GVA data. Across the U.S., during the same time period, 20 mass shootings occurred; 340 people were killed and 756 were injured.

Kristi Tanner is a data reporter. Contact her at ktanner@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter: @midatalove.