Woman shot in head, house set on fire, young boy badly burned in Detroit

DETROIT (FOX 2) - Detroit investigators are looking into a house fire after a woman was shot in the head and her young son was badly burned Tuesday afternoon.

Around noon on Tuesday, police said neighborhood officer Morgan Pistolesi had been driving on the Southfield Freeway and when she saw smoke billowing from a neighborhood.

"She called it out, told the dispatch that she was going to come and investigate whether it was a house fire or not," Detroit Police Captain Lashanna Potts said.

Neighbors were already trying to get into the home but the smoke and flames were just too thick.

“I saw the flames coming out the back window and I mean not just a little fire, it was running right out," said neighbor Mike St. Peter.

"I kept hearing this hollering and screaming. The little boy's like 'mama, mama' and I said 'where are you at'? She said 'right here'. Where. 'On the side by the driveway',"  said neighbor Tony Moore. 

The screaming was coming from the 36-year-old woman who lived there and her young boy, either 4 or 5 years old, who were both inside the home.

The screams sadly faded as fire crews pulled the boy and his mother from the burning home. 

"They was burnt bad. They was burnt bad, both. Her clothes were burnt to her skin. And a little boy. His whole side of his face was messed up. He had long pretty hair and I’m like oh my God," Moore said.

Pistolesi started CPR to try to save them and rode to the hospital with the little boy.

"To think that someone could possibly have set this fire is extremely troubling for me. We’re going to find you. We’re definitely gonna find you," Potts said.

Detroit police and arson investigators were on the scene for hours. While they were there, neighbors said the boy's mom died at the hospital and that she had been shot before the fire started. 

"Pray for them. I didn’t know them but it’s a tragedy that affects all of us in the neighborhood," said St. Peter.

They're all sending love to the little boy with burns over half of his body as he's fighting to live in Children's Hospital.

“Just hang in there. I’m praying for you brother. Just hang in there. Because all the neighbors, we all tried," Moore said.

The family has put out a gofundme to anyone willing to help.