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Man killed near Erebus Haunted House was welder from Detroit, walking away from argument, family says

By Camille Amiri and Jay Dillon
Updated  September 28, 2020 7:32pm EDT
FOX 2 Detroit

PONTIAC, Mich. (FOX 2) - The family of a 29-year-old man who was shot and killed early Sunday morning near the Erebus Haunted House in Pontiac says they've heard multiple versions of what happened.

Douglas Reese, a welder from Detroit, was shot and killed outside the Erebus Haunted House in Pontiac early Sunday morning.

Family disputes story that man shot and killed near Erebus Haunted House cut line

Law enforcement say an argument in the line to get into the Erebus Haunted House escalated after the victim cut the line but his family doesn't believe that to be true.

His sister and cousin, neither of wanted to give their names, said they never would have thought it would happen to them.

"He was young, spirited, always smiling, hardworking," his sister said. "You hear about this every day, you hear about it every day I would have never thought it would be my brother."

The Oakland County Sheriff's Office says it started in the line to get inside when Reese and the suspect got into an argument. Reese got out of line and was walking to his car when the sheriff said the suspect followed him and started shooting.

"When somebody is walking away from a situation or whatever, you don't follow him and shoot him, you don't do that, that's not ok," his sister said.

While no one is disputing what happened, there is confusion about what led to the murder. Witnesses said Reese cut in line front of the suspect but his family says that's not true.

"We've actually heard six different stories, six different versions of what actually happened. We don't know what is the true story," Reese's cousin said. "He wasn't the type of person to take cuts in front of nobody, he was not confrontational, he didn't just look for trouble or anything like that."

The sheriff's office has released images of the suspect in line and has released pictures of the car he left in.

Reese's sister is pleading for help solving her brother's murder.

"So whoever was with him, I know people talk - it's not snitching, you're telling on somebody who's a murderer," she said.

She also has a message for the person who killed her brother.

"You didn't care, you didn't care. you took my brother away from me and my nephews and my mom and my dad. Just another family with a broken heart," she said.