PONTIAC, Mich. – Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard confirmed to Local 4 Thursday that two men have been arrested in connection with a deadly shooting on a party bus that was outside a Pontiac bar on May 13.
The suspects are 20-year-old Lerrick Myers of Pontiac and 22-year-old Craig Lewis of Taylor.
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They have both been arraigned on charges of felony murder, multiple charges of armed robbery and firearms charges.
A 19-year-old mother, Shuntrice Sylvester, and 28-year-old Tony Ellis, both of Detroit, were killed when gunfire rang out at about 2 a.m.
Bouchard said about two hours before the killings, both suspects were involved in an argument inside Porky's bar with two patrons and robbed one of the patrons of $300 in cash.
Unaware of the robbery, security escorted all four of them out of the building. While in the parking lot, a physical altercation took place between the suspects and the two patrons.
One patron went to his car to retrieve a firearm and was disarmed by the suspects. The patron did have a valid CPL License for the firearm.
"I wish in this kind of a case we had the death penalty. I mean, you've got somebody who absolutely, randomly and intentionally fires a firearm into a crowded bus," Bouchard said. "They clearly don't care about what happens to anybody in this world."
Ellis was the father of a boy and a girl. Sylvester had a son who was nearly 2 years old.
It's not clear whether they knew each other. About twenty people were on the bus.
Woman leaves behind young son
Sylvester's son is too young to understand the lifelong blow he has just been dealt.
His father, D.J. Fleors, looks on and wonders about the questions the boy will ask someday.
"How did she look. How did she sound? How did she smell? How was she? Did she love me?" Fleors said.
But for now, 20-month-old Seanjurel simply plays and flashes a smile that melts the heart of a visitor.
Moments before the tragedy happened Sunday, Felors talked to Shuntrice.
"At two in the morning I called her and she said she was just leaving the club," he said. "She was walking onto the party bus. She says, 'I'm getting on the party bus right now.'"
When passengers began yelling at the gunman, he fired three shots into the vehicle. Sylvester was killed along with 28-year-old Tony Ellis.
"I just want to say to the person who did this, you hurt a lot of people. A lot of people loved her. There's a lot of pain," said Fleors.
The sadness deepens when Fleors reflects on what happened to his own mother 20 years ago.
"Her name was Pamela Yowell. She was murdered. I was one -- the same age as my son," said Fleors.
Fleors was looking forward to seeing Sylvester on Mother's Day.
"I got her a card," he said, as tears fell. "I didn't even have a chance to give it to her."