Mason County Bowling Center Reacts After Employee Shoots Gun Behind Building

An argument turned aggressive, then shots fired behind this bowling alley.

It started around five Tuesday afternoon at the Spartan West Bowling Center.

Someone called into 911 reporting shots fired.

Deputies responded to the bowling center in Amber Township came to find the alleged shooter in the woods and guns near the building and in a car.

9&10’s Taylor Jones looked into the situation for Wednesday’s top story.

Deputies tell us this all started when the owner of the bowling alley got into an argument with his son who was also an employee.

That’s when they say the son went outside and started firing his gun.

“It was just a normal day and there was an argument that happened to get blown out of proportion,” says Michael Philo, employee at the bowling center.

Deputies say when a father and son got into a fight, the son went outside and fired off his gun several times behind the building.

“There has been a lot of tension around here just because it is a family run business there is expectations and arguments got a little out of control and pretty much cops were called. It was failure of communication on multiple levels,” says Philo.

When deputies arrived they found the alleged gunman in the woods.

15 minutes later the man came out.

Employees at the bowling center say he was letting off some steam.

“He wasn’t intending any harm to anybody, he was just saying hey, I need to do this because I have a lot of stress built up. He wasn’t trying to endanger himself, he wasn’t trying to endanger the company, and there was no shooter in the bowling alley. He had a stressful moment,” says Philo.

Deputies say no one was hurt and there were no threats, but a person can’t just shoot a gun in a public place.

As for the family business, people don’t seem scared off.

“They are very well known and very well liked and for something like a shooting, that was hard to hear and hard to take in. But I tried to tell people things happen, so let’s all go back there to bowl and have fun,” says Mark Dean, league bowler at the lanes.

The suspect was taken to the hospital for mental treatment and there have been no arrests at this time.