BY MATT MACKINDER
Clarkston News Editor

One person is dead, and the alleged killer has been taken into custody and subsequently arraigned after a late-afternoon shooting in Springfield Township on September 3.
Vincent Scott Merrill, 50, called 911 at 5:52 p.m., saying, “I just killed my girlfriend,” before hanging up.
Officers and the Springfield Township Fire Department responded to the scene and found Merrill standing in the driveway outside the residence in the 9200 block of Cherrywood Road.
He told the responding officer, “I shot her. I killed her.”
The “her” was Merrill’s live-in girlfriend, whose name has not been released.
Merrill was taken into custody without incident and was secured in a patrol car.
Officers then entered the residence and found the body of a 60-year-old woman lying on the floor with no sign of life. She had sustained multiple gunshot wounds.
An emergency room doctor at McLaren Oakland Hospital in Pontiac pronounced her dead.
“I find it heartbreaking any time there is any victim of violence, but it is especially tragic to see situations where people at one point professed to love someone and then take their life,” said Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard. “It is never acceptable to commit an act of violence on anyone let alone someone you purportedly love. Our prayers go out to the family and friends of the victim.”
A .380 semi-automatic handgun, which is believed to be the weapon used in the homicide, was found on a table in the basement.
Merrill was lodged at the Oakland County Jail before last Sunday’s arraignment before Magistrate Robert Morad at 52-2 District Court in Clarkston, where he was charged with first-degree murder and possession of a firearm in the commission of a crime, another felony.
Bond was denied for Merrill.
The next court date for Merrill is set for next Monday, September 14, at 52-2 District Court. A judge had not yet been assigned as of Tuesday morning.
The motive for the killing was unknown as of press time, but the Oakland County Sheriff’s Special Investigations Unit will be continuing the investigation moving forward.