GRANDVIEW, Mo. — A car salesman’s family is in shock after he was shot in broad daylight on Thursday. The 24-year-old man is in critical condition after being shot at work, and the shooter is still on the loose. Family identified the victim as Michael Mitchell, and one of his aunts spoke to FOX 4’s Megan Brilley.
“Furious. Angry. I’ve been bawling for hours,” West said.
She said she’s had one of the toughest days of her life, and her nephew is now fighting for his after being shot while he was working at Pride Auto Sales.
“It’s sad. It’s a sad cruel world we live in. It really is,” she said.
Police say a man ran into the car dealership with his face covered and shot Mitchell. The suspect fled, and Mitchell was rushed to the hospital. West says her nephew was shot in his stomach and lost a lot of blood.
“They had to do blood transfusion, it hit his spleen. It hit his intestine slash colon and it grazed his stomach,” she said.
West says Mitchell is now hospitalized and heavily sedated, but doctors believe he is going to survive. He had only been working at Pride Auto for two weeks according to his aunt, and she has no idea why someone would want to hurt him.
“He hadn’t worked there very long. So if it was someone who got mad over a deal, or a past… he wasn’t there long enough to make anybody mad because he had just started. So I really don’t think he was the intended target, I really don’t,” West said.
Neither do any of his friends. Dozens wrote on Mitchell’s Facebook page, shocked to hear the news and sending prayers for a speedy recovery.
“You hear about it on a daily basis but you don’t think it’s going to happen to your family or your loved ones. It has. It really hit home this time and I can feel what all these people feel being survivors of incidents like this, tragedies is what it is,” West said.
Police say they do have an idea of who this suspect might be, but are still actively searching. If you have any information about the shooting call CrimeStoppers at (816) 474-TIPS.