Man inside shot up van with children inside ID'd; 2 gunmen sought

DETROIT (WJBK) - Just as parents were taking their kids to school Wednesday morning, Troy Sanford, his daughter and two other children were about to leave a home near City Airport on Detroit's east side. 

He was shot and killed and two of the children wounded on Sanford Street Wednesday morning on Detroit's west side. Now police are on the hunt for two suspected shooters.

"How sad is this, it's broad daylight and you have children and they are shooting," said Cmdr. Eric Decker, Detroit police. "That's where we need the public to step in so we can put an end to this, put these people away so it doesn't happen again."

The suspects are two men in dark clothing who ran up firing a dozen rounds.

"We have children, these guys ran up and started shooting and have no clue what's going on," Decker said.

Sanford, believed to be the target, was killed outside of his van. His 10-year-old daughter was shot in the shoulder. Another 14-year-old boy was hit with bullet fragments. 

A 12-year-old child also inside of the van, wasn't injured.  

Immediately the 10-year-old's mother ran outside of her home, jumped into the shot up car and drove the kids to Detroit Children's Hospital of Michigan. They are all expected to be okay. 

"Extremely sad day," Decker said. "I mean, first we have a death of a subject, but we have these kids involved, we take that very seriously," Decker said.

"Is unfortunate these kids have to go through this just going to school," said a neighbor who gave his name as "T."

This mom lives a couple doors down from the crime scene. She normally would have been outside getting in her car, with her kids around 7:45 when the shooting happened. 

"Taking my daughter to school, but thankfully she graduated yesterday," she said.

FOX 2: "You could have been in the street when all this happened."

"Yes I know, exactly that's sad," she said.

Police say they're working without much of a suspect description, limited surveillance video - what they really need is people who saw something to come forward and start talking. Call Detroit police at (313) 596-5200.