OSHTEMO TOWNSHIP (WKZO-AM) — A team of grief counselors will be on hand Monday at Kalamazoo Central High School after a student enrolled there was killed in a weekend shooting.
Deshontae Dewayne Ellis, 18, was found dead in the parking lot of the Red Roof Inn in Oshtemo after a disagreement broke out during a party in one of the rooms early Saturday.
A suspect in the case, Nasi Moshe Ben-Yaisrael, was arrested just hours after the shooting, at around noon Saturday, after he returned to the motel. He was spotted in a car that rolled into the parking lot while deputies were at the scene.
Information about the arrest was withheld, because Kalamazoo County Undersheriff Pauli Matyas says they didn’t want that to undermine their investigation and efforts to round up witnesses.
Ben-Yaisrael is being held on an open murder count and is expected to be formally charged Monday.
Matyas says the arguments began during the party. Some of the antagonists left, then returned and an altercation followed in the parking lot.
One witness told deputies Ellis was shot as he sat in the back seat of a car.
Detectives are trying to identify everyone who was at the party. They’re also still looking for other possible witnesses.
– John McNeill
