7 Killed as Violence Erupts During Detroit Celebrations of NBA Win

Detroit Pistons fans celebrating the team’s second consecutive NBA championship turned violent early today. At least seven people died and several more were critically injured as thousands packed downtown streets.

Police in suburban River Rouge arrested 28 revelers, most on disorderly conduct charges, and there were numerous reports of looting and related violence. Detroit police had no overall count of arrests or violent incidents.

In the crush, a car plowed into pedestrians on the city’s East Side about 1:15 a.m., killing four people and injuring one, Detroit Police Lt. Phil Foster said.

A 9-year-old boy was pronounced dead at Children’s Hospital, a 10-year-old boy and a 15-year-old girl died at St. John’s Hospital, and a 21-year-old man died late this morning at Detroit Receiving Hospital, Police Sgt. Christopher Buck said.

Buck said the driver of the car remained at large.

A 19-year-old man was shot to death and a 25-year-old man critically injured at a parking lot at 2:15 a.m., Foster said. He said the lot was packed with revelers and someone shot into the crowd.

The streets--some strewn with glass--were quiet by dawn, and police who stayed through the night on overtime headed home.

A 4-year-old suburban Detroit child was struck and killed by a car during a street celebration in River Rouge, said Lt. David Israel of that suburb’s Police Department.

“The child was excited and ran into the street,” Israel said.

A 21-year-old man fell from the roof of an apartment building during a celebration party and died later at Detroit Receiving Hospital, hospital spokeswoman Diane Cooper said.

Robert Egan, a Mount Carmel Hospital nurse, said fights even broke out in the hospital’s emergency room early this morning.

“We were running around like crazy. We registered something like 20 gunshot wounds between midnight and 4 a.m.,” Egan said. “It was ridiculous. In my three years here, I’ve never seen anything like this.”

Several revelers told television crews that they were robbed as they stood on the streets and others said people reached into their cars, stealing stereo speakers and wallets, as they tried to drive through the crowds.

Traffic in downtown Detroit ground to a halt as merrymakers weaved between the cars, hugging and chanting “Bad boys!” in the hours after Vinnie Johnson’s shot with seven-tenths of a second left gave the Pistons a 92-90 win over the Trail Blazers in Portland, Ore.

Last year, hundreds of carloads of boisterous fans also jammed streets after the Pistons’ 105-97 win over the Los Angeles Lakers for a 4-0 sweep of the National Basketball Assn. finals and their first championship. But that celebration was devoid of the damage and deaths that occurred today.