14-year-old survives deadly 3-city rampage as uncle kills his mom, a co-worker, then himself

Joel Kurth:

Drenched in blood, gasoline and tears, Britney Samuels was certain death was near.

Shot multiple times by her uncle in an early-morning rampage that would leave him and two others dead, the 14-year-old girl hobbled two houses down from her northwest Detroit home. She screamed for help, banged on the door, and finally collapsed on the kitchen floor at the home of her neighbor and friend.

"She kept saying 'I'm going to die, I'm going to die,' " said Wanda Jackson, 46, who opened the door for Britney. "I kept telling her 'No you ain't. No you ain't.' She couldn't breathe. She was covered in gasoline and blood. There was nothing we could do but talk to her and try to keep her engaged."

Britney underwent surgery Wednesday at Children's Hospital of Michigan in Detroit. She's the sole survivor in a shooting spree that has police in three cities searching for a motive and neighbors blaming mental illness and family and work tensions.

Several neighbors and police officials said Jamal Samuels, 22, suffered from bipolar disorder and wasn't on medication at 2 a.m. when he shot his niece and his mother, Annie Samuels, 56, a nurse whom more than one neighbor called the "mother of the neighborhood" and "life of the party."

He doused the brick bungalow and his victims in gasoline, lit a fire and fled in his mother's tan GMC Envoy to his workplace, a United Parcel Service facility in Livonia. Police said Samuels waited in a nearby parking lot to ambush co-worker Kelton Lamarr Kidd II, 23, with an assault rifle as Kidd left work at the end of his shift as a package sorter.

Kidd -- who minutes earlier had phoned his girlfriend to say he was on his way home -- was shot several times in the chest and pronounced dead at the scene.

The killing stopped when Samuels shot himself in the head. He was found slumped in his car at 5:40 a.m., two miles away, in the driveway of fellow UPS package sorter Wally Crawford Jr., 25.

Samuels may have planned more murders. Police recovered two full clips of ammunition on his body, said Wally Crawford Sr., 57, a Wayne County Sheriff's supervisor who found the car as he left for work. Detroit police said they recovered rounds from an AK-47 at Annie Samuels' home, but they have not determined what kind of gun Samuels used to kill his victims.

Deadly rampage leaves loved ones asking why