Dispute over fireworks leads to fatal ambush of Detroit father

Detroit police are investigating how a dispute over fireworks ended in a deadly shooting just after 10 p.m. Monday.

"I can't grasp a firecracker in the air cost me my nephew's life," said Jacqueline Williams. "I can't grasp that."

Williams and her family had just returned from the fireworks when a 13-year-old relative threw a firecracker into the air at the Martin Luther King Homes on Chene Street.

"The guys actually pulled their guns out on a 13-year-old kid," she said. "We're trying to tell them it's a kid - he didn't see you standing there. He just lit it and threw it up in the air."

"We're trying to get the kids in the house and tell them look - it was an innocent mistake with a kid and we didn't want any problems."

Jacquelyn says they thought it was over but a short time later, her son and her 37-year-old nephew, Paul Mitchell, left the apartment complex to go buy beer. Their car stalled and in that instant - someone opened fire.

Mitchell, a father who had just spent the evening with his daughter and family at the fireworks, was shot multiple times.

"We tried to diffuse the situation and thought everything was okay," Williams said. "Then they got in the car (and) they ambushed them right there.

"They shot him in the head and multiple times in the chest."

Williams says there's been too much violence here at her complex and as she and her family move out, she has a message for those who stay behind:

"You need to live together instead of trying to kill each other," Williams said. "You come out better living in a war-torn country. 

Nobody should have to die because a kid through a firecracker up in the air."

Anyone with information should call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-SPEAK-UP. 

You can remain anonymous. If you would like to donate to the family of Paul Mitchell, go to the GoFundMe page:  http://dm2.gofund.me/xpwp94