Jamil Omar Goodwin, 43, was a Black/African American man from Detroit, Michigan, whose life was cut short on March 11, 2016, after gunfire tore through a quiet stretch of the city’s west side. Late that afternoon, Goodwin was spending time on the front porch of a home in the 2600 block of Hazelwood Street, an area described in reports as a neighborhood where families sat outside and children were nearby.
The moment carried the ordinary ease of a mild day—until a dark vehicle rolled into view and slowed as it approached the porch.
Witness accounts and police statements described the vehicle as a black Dodge Journey, used like a moving blind. Two shooters were said to have leaned out and opened fire while a third person drove. The burst was sudden and relentless, catching the people on the porch with little chance to react. John “Chip” Smith was killed at the scene, and others were rushed to hospitals with gunshot wounds. Goodwin was taken for emergency treatment but later died, leaving behind seven children and a family forced to reckon with a loss that came without warning and without any clear reason offered to the public.
In the first hours after the shooting, investigators emphasized that they did not believe it was random. Police officials said they suspected the attack was aimed at a specific target, describing it as possible retribution and suggesting the violence may have been connected to an earlier incident in the same area the week before. As detectives worked the neighborhood, they focused on the fleeing Dodge Journey and the people inside it—two gunmen and a driver—hoping that witnesses, surveillance, or community tips could turn a description into names.
Public reporting at the time noted a handful of leads but no immediate breakthrough. One witness told reporters the shooters kept firing until the gunfire stopped, and police shared that the license plate might have included the characters “Z28,” a detail that could have narrowed the search if confirmed. Even so, the suspects were not publicly identified in the coverage available, and no arrests or charges were announced in connection with Goodwin’s death in the reports describing the case. The story that remains is one of a bright afternoon shattered by a passing vehicle, an attack carried out from behind glass and speed, and an investigation left chasing shadows down Hazelwood Street.
