Body cam video shows gunman escape after police shoot at him at a crowded Battle Creek park

A Battle Creek police officer was put on paid administrative leave after a shooting at Claude Evans Park Wednesday night.

Officers from Battle Creek's Gang Suppression Unit were on patrol at the park near North Washington Avenue when they spotted a large crowd and saw multiple people running away from the park's basketball courts, according to Battle Creek Police Department.

Witnesses directed officers to the courts for a possible fight, and one person said people had guns, according to the department.

Officers then found a man firing several rounds at others at the park.

Trying to stop the suspect, one officer fired their weapon, but the man quickly got into a black Buick SUV and sped away, according to the department.

"It's incredibly traumatizing, just think about that, you're out enjoying an evening and then a situation where some sort of argument escalates into a shooting," Battle Creek Police Chief Shannon Bagley told reporters Thursday. "That's absolutely horrific. It's unconscionable that we would reach that level of behavior. There were plenty of kids there, Moms, grandmas and other people there. The trauma."

As of Thursday, officers do not know if anyone in the park was injured during the shooting, police said.

The officer involved was not injured, but was placed on leave through routine protocol, according to the department.

According to Bagley, BCPD has seized 90 firearms so far in 2023.

"We're working on solutions, so we can start to address this in a different way because a lot of the systems and manners and methods in which we use to address these issues, obviously, haven't worked," Bagley said. "So we're working on some things we hope to implement here to implement in the not-so-distant future that we hope will have an impact. This is going to take the community, we can't do it alone."

In addition, officers know who the suspect is and believe he was targeting specific individuals.

Officers found other discarded handguns in the area.