Man shoots roommate at Detroit boarding house, calls police to confess

DETROIT (WJBK) - A man is in custody after allegedly shooting his roommate on Detroit's west side during a dispute, then calling the cops because he felt bad.

"I'm listening. All of a sudden I hear this man arguing with his girlfriend. Next thing I know I hear a pow," said Curtis Ford, who lives at the boarding house.

That 'pow' Curtis Ford heard Thursday night, was one of his roommates at a boarding house in Detroit shooting another roommate.

"I see Melvin sticking his head out. I said man what's going on? And he said, I think I just shot Darius," Ford said.

Police say 50-year-old Melvin Thomas shot the victim in the thigh, but we are told he immediately felt bad and called 911, fessing up to the crime.

"I said Mel, call the police. He said I'm already on the phone," Ford said.

Darius didn't stick around. He and his girlfriend walked with that serious leg wound several blocks to this gas station. Sources tell us he can be seen on security footage standing there bleeding profusely, then passing out. 

"He got fed up I think," Juaneva Moore said.

Moore was hiding out in her room when she heard the shot says everyone knows why Melvin fired his gun.

"The guy picks on Melvin all the time. He's tried to kick his door in before," she said.

Ford says this all comes down to one thing - bullying.

Melvin waited a few blocks away until police came and he surrendered peacefully. Darius is recovering in the hospital and expected to be okay.

But the dozen or so people who live in the boarding house, many with mental health issues, are on edge, nervous that a weapon was in the home. 

"So trivial of a thing to even be angry over, let alone to get shot for," Moore said.