GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Drawing in crowds and up to hundreds of vehicles, car and motorcycle meet ups are happening across the country. Police say car and motorcycle meets organized by groups to admire each other's vehicles are a normal occurrence, but some individuals plan follow-up locations, which can involve reckless driving, racing, and blocking traffic.
Meet-ups around Grand Rapids have resulted in a woman being seriously injured in July after a drag incident, a man being shot in Cascade in May, and on Sunday, 19-year-old Alana Vasquez being shot and killed.
"This is more than kids doing burnouts. It's more than kids showing off their car. This is behavior, which, unfortunately, in the city of Grand Rapids now as of Sunday has resulted in the murder of a 19 year old girl," said Grand Rapids Police Chief Eric Winstrom at a briefing held by officials from GRPS, Walker Police Department, Kent County Sheriff's Office, and Michigan State Police.
Winstrom also says that these events are often driven by social media, and are not gatherings that form organically.
"The vehicles that we've encountered and arrested, we often have GoPro devices or other small camera systems actually installed on the vehicle so that they can record these stunt driving maneuvers," said Winstrom.
Many meet-ups are reoccurring, with the same people gathering at the same locations. Police say a meet-up was held Friday by many of the same people who were present where Alana Vasquez was killed, and was held near the same place. Police made two arrests and impounded two vehicles at Friday's event.
"I watched the body worn camera for one from one of the arrests, and the driver of the vehicle said to the officer, 'why are you picking on us? We're not doing anything wrong.' That driver had a fully loaded semi automatic handgun on the backseat of their car," Winstrom said. "I don't know why you're going to a car show with a fully loaded semi-automatic assault weapon on the back of your car."
Police say these events began gaining popularity during the pandemic, and through social media draw in many young people, who police say are at risk of finding themselves in highly dangerous situations.
"We definitely see a trend with people, kind of the 15 to 20, early 20s, age groups that are more highly participating in these," said Kent County Sheriff Michelle LaJoye-Young.
"The jeopardy that a young person who thinks they're coming to a car race, and are now in the middle of a gunfight, and we've seen that a few different times, they're in the middle of a gunfight and don't have the tools to even get away in many of these situations, because they've ridden with somebody, and those somebodies take off when there's a problem," said Young.
The Walker Police Department also echoing that the issue is not isolated to Grand Rapids, citing a recent meet-up where police say 200 cars "took over" the Standale area.
"Next thing you know, you got 200 cars around you. They're in total disregard for traffic lights, they blow traffic lights, they do wheelies on motorcycles, it's unlimited, so anybody driving the road, they're putting those people at risk," said Walker Police Chief Keith Mankel.
The overall message sent by police, is expect to see them when attending a meet-up, as police also ask of the public to inform them when they hear word or see posts online about large car meet-ups in the area.
"We're going to try and disable those vehicles, we're going to try and apprehend those people, we're going to try and identify the people every way that we can," said Winstrom who continues to ask for the publics help in finding the person responsible for the killing of Alana Vasquez.
Anyone with information can contact GRPD or use Silent Observer.
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