Michigan splash pad reopens less than three weeks after mass shooting

ROCHESTER HILLS, Mich. — While the Fourth of July brought drizzles and gray skies, it didn't stop at least a couple of families from enjoying the Brooklands Plaza Splash Pad the day after it reopened for the first time since a mass shooting there two and a half weeks ago.

The city said it reopened the facility on the advice of the Oakland County Sheriff's Office and mental health advocates who spoke with victims of the June 15 shooting, which wounded nine people.

"The Splash Pad has always been a place for our community to come together, and as we saw at Festival of the Hills last week, our community is yearning for that connection," the city said in an update on its website. "The Splash Pad will be open from 10 am to 8 pm, seven days a week. There will be an additional public safety presence in the area as well as information available for resources through Oakland Community Health Network."

Rochester Hills resident Kelly Moore lives near the splash pad and was surprised to see it open. She spent time splashing around with her husband and two children on a hot and humid afternoon after enjoying ice cream from Brain Freeze across the street.

"I am shocked that it has been opened so soon, I think it's amazing," Moore, 40, said. "This is the type of experience where the faster we get back to normal and using it, the more that we will get used to using it."

Moore said she thinks exposure and community support are good ways to help move forward. She saw some people running around in the splash pad "like it used to be" on Wednesday.

"It's real fear, and whatever anyone is feeling is fair," Moore said. "But one of the most powerful ways to overcome is one, come together as a community, like coming to support the local businesses, but also coming together where something like that happened, and understanding that this was a fluke location. … The best thing, again, we can do is come together as a community and support each other."

A gunman exited a car at the splash pad on the evening of June 15 and fired 36 shots from a semi-automatic handgun, wounding nine people, two of whom are children, police said. Eight of the nine victims had been released from the hospital as of Wednesday, according to the city's update. The shooter died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound the night of the shooting.

A 39-year-old mother who was shot multiple times while trying to protect her children is the only victim still hospitalized, the Oakland County Sheriff's Office said Monday. Several of the victims who have been released still struggle with healing and health challenges, the sheriff's office said last week. Links to verified fundraisers for five of the victim's families can be found here.

Signs at the splash pad on Thursday promoted mental health resources, including the 988 crisis helpline, the Oakland Community Health Network's phone number and the Oakland County nurse-on-call's phone number.

Christopher Brent, 44, of Grand Blanc took his six children to visit their grandparents in Rochester Hills for the holiday. They also live in the splash pad's neighborhood, so the kids were familiar with the facility and four of them wanted to go Thursday, so they did.

"I think it's good to open it and, you know, let people get back to normal," Brent said. "I'm not going to say no to my kids because I'd have to do that for everything, we'd have to do that for anywhere I go."

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