GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — One of the men injured in a shooting in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan, earlier this month sustained 10 gunshot wounds but is expected to be OK after his bride helped stem the bleeding, family says.
“It’s the worst feeling in the world,” his mother said of learning her son had been shot. “I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.”
Just after midnight on June 5, 23-year-old Marcellous Suttles was out with his bride on Pearl Street near downtown. His wedding had taken place at New Covenant Church earlier on June 4.
“It was such a happy day,” his mother Natasha Suttles told News 8 on Tuesday. “I don’t want to remember that night. We’re going to remember it for the rest of our lives.”
“I was hysterical, screaming in the house, yelling for my daughter, yelling no, and just through my mind I was like, ‘No, not again,’” she continued.
Marcellous Suttles’s father died in August 2011 of a heart attack. His mother feared the worst again on June 5.
“They have the same first name,” she said. “And I’m just like, ‘No, not again.’ That was my first [thought in my] mind. ‘I can’t, I can’t do this again.’”
Marcellous Suttles was one of four men shot that night. One of them, 25-year-old Armonie Acklin, died on the scene. Police said that two groups of people who knew each other ran into each other and a fight broke out. Court documents show suspect Genesis Lewis told investigators he went to his vehicle to get a handgun and started firing. Lewis, 23, was charged with second-degree murder, three counts of assault with intent to murder and a count of felony firearm in connection to the shooting.
Kieychia Likely, Marcellous Suttles’ aunt, was the maid of honor at the wedding. She called it “gut-wrenching” to go from a “beautiful ceremony” to receiving the phone call that her nephew had been shot.
“You go from extreme high of happiness to an extreme low of potentially your loved one is gone in the same day you’re celebrating such a beautiful union,” Likely said. “You’re potentially mourning the loss of somebody you care about deeply.”
Natasha Suttles raced to the hospital while Likely went to the scene of the shooting.
They said the bride used ties and belts to stem her husband’s bleeding and to help at least one of the other men before emergency responders arrived.
“She was covered in blood,” Likely said. “They wouldn’t release her because she witnessed the whole thing. The streets were blocked off. She was hysterical, rightfully so because she had just gotten married that morning.”
Marcellus Suttles suffered wounds to his shoulder, stomach, hand and thigh. Despite that, he was released from the hospital the same day. His mother called it a “miracle.”
Likely said Marcellous Suttles doesn’t have a good memory of what happened that night.
He still has a long road to recovery. Natasha Suttles said her son will need surgery on his hand and possibly his shoulder.
“One of the bullets has moved from his shoulder now,” she said. “He does have fragments still in his shoulder because the shoulder is also broken. It did move into his chest cavity by his lung now. We’re a little worried about that now, even though they say we don’t have to worry.”
Marcellous Suttles has two younger brothers, ages 8 and 12.
“They don’t really know how to deal with it and process,” Natasha Suttles said.
Amid a surge of gun violence in Grand Rapids, she said she is shaken.
“With all these shootings now, I don’t feel safe anywhere,” she said.
Natasha Suttles has set up a GoFundMe account to support her son and his bride that had raised $1,160 as of Tuesday afternoon.
“There are multiple family members whose lives have been forever changed by this,” Likely said. “It’s important to keep them in mind and keep them in prayer as well. This is the beginning of a long road. That night was the starting point.”
