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Muskegon residents scared as shootings increase

Eistedt discovered a bullet came through his front window, just feet from where his wife was sleeping.

MUSKEGON, Mich. — Chris Eistedt was at home Monday night when shots rang from the street.

"I heard a whistling noise, and I know the sound from being a hunter, of a bullet," says Eistedt.

When the commotion died down, he discovered a bullet came through his front window, just feet from where his wife was sleeping.

"I wasn't able to sleep," he says. "I was just really shook up."

Eistedt says when he and his wife moved into the house several years ago, it was a quiet neighborhood. But things have started to get out of control in the last few years.

"In four or five years, there's been four drive-bys," says Eistedt.

He says after each shooting, police come to collect evidence but don't follow up.

"I support them, I want them to support me," he says. "That's all I'm asking."

Kristina Trute wants to see more police involvement as well.

"There's plenty of police, you see them looking for people speeding," says Trute. "What are you doing sitting back in the parking lot? You're not patrolling the neighborhoods."

She says she's heard gunfire more than once in the last week and fears for her 4-year-old daughter.

"It's scary. She'll be like, we'll be OK, mom. I promise we'll be OK," says Trute. "She's to the point where she's comforting me."

Sara Wolovlek called 911 on Monday after she witnessed a shooting just down the street from where her kids were playing.

"I took off," she recalls. "I bolted out the door, screaming for them to get down."

Wolovlek says it was the first time she's ever felt scared in her own home.

"Yesterday I did not feel safe," she says. "They took that from me."

Muskegon Heights Police Department says it has a high intensity patrol activated in response to the recent uptick in violence, but seeks more community help.

"I think the citizens of Muskegon Heights and Muskegon have to take some accountability and report shots fired when it is happening and report the people who they think that are the problem," says Muskegon Heights police chief Maurice Sain.

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