LANSING, MI (WSYM) - — On June 15 Ronnie Holmes was shot and killed on Saginaw Highway in Delta Township. The Eaton County Sheriff’s Office immediately began an investigation into the strange circumstances of his death.
That morning police received calls about a man dressed in black sweats wandering through traffic and brandishing a firearm. By the time they arrived, only minutes after the initial call, they found Ronnie dead from several gunshot wounds. He was dressed in black sweats, and near his body was a .308 handgun.
A man standing by Holmes’s body, Austin Curry, was detained at the scene.
When questioned, Curry said that Holmes had walked in front of his car, forcing him to stop. He said that Holmes then walked around to his driver’s side window, all while pointing a gun at him. Fearing for his life, he drew his own gun and fired through the window, fatally wounding Holmes.
Police conducted interviews with many witnesses, all of whom paint a sad picture of the morning. Those who had interacted with Ronnie Holmes described him as ranting, indicating that he had a gun, and then trying to get hit by traffic.
Shane McGrady was delivering cars for Champion Chrysler when he observed Holmes ranting near the dealership. As McGrady was leaving Holmes stopped the commercial vehicle and had a conversation with McGrady. During that conversation Holmes brandished his gun while ranting, told McGrady multiple times that he did not want him to be scared, but reminded him that he was armed.
Shortly thereafter, Brandon Ball was driving west on Saginaw when he saw Holmes running in and out of traffic, and said it looked like he was trying to get hit by a car. Ball stopped his vehicle when he saw Holmes approach a vehicle that had stopped. By the time Ball arrived to the scene on foot Holmes was on the ground and Curry was exiting his vehicle.
Ball described Curry as saying to a motionless Holmes, “Why did you do that? I didn’t want to shoot you.”
Holmes’s pistol was found to be empty, but Austin Curry could not have known that when it was pointed at him. Given the abundance of witnesses and physical evidence at the scene, the shooting has been deemed self-defense by the Sheriff’s Office.
