Six overnight shootings ring in the new year for Detroit police

DETROIT (WJBK) - Detroit police ushered in the new year having to investigate six additional shootings. 

Six people were shot New Year's Eve, all in separate scenes around the city. Many of the victims couldn't tell where the bullets were coming from.

A 17-year-old girl was shot near Gratiot and Eastburn. She tells police she was sitting in her car and heard gunshots -- and realized she had been shot in the leg. She is expected to be okay. 

Fifteen minutes later, across town near I-75 in the 800 block of E State Fair Road, a 24-year-old man was critically injured when he was shot in the head and hit elsewhere on his body. Someone drove him to the hospital in a bullet-ridden truck, but the driver ran off. 

Another man is in critical condition after being shot in the stomach near Gratiot and Seven Mile. 

In the first few minutes of 2018, a 47-year-old man was shot in the groin on Wanda Street on the city's east side. He's in serious condition. 

Police say they're also looking for suspects in two other non-fatal shootings overnight. 

A day after all this violence, though, Detroit Police Chief James Craig says the number of homicides in the city in 2017 was the lowest in more than 50 years. 

The Detroit News cites James Craig as saying there were 267 homicides in Michigan's largest city last year. That would be the fewest number of homicides since 1966, when there were 214. 
 
The 2017 figure still must be confirmed in a review. Department officials will hold a news conference later this week to address the numbers.