Motel security guard shot and killed; suspect dead
WYOMING, Mich. November 4 2021 Police say a security guard was shot and killed at a motel in Wyoming early Tuesday morning and the suspect was later found dead, apparently by suicide.
The Wyoming Department of Public Safety said officers were called shortly before 12 a.m. Tuesday for reports of shots fired near the Grand Rapids Inn on 28th Street at the intersection of Buchanan Avenue SW.
Police say the security guard, John Cain, went to the suspect’s room to respond to a disorderly complaint.
“I don’t know much about what had transpired throughout the day. During the incident that he was addressing right now was just disorderly behavior,” Wyoming Department of Public Safety Lt. Brian Look said. “The suspect and another person were wandering around the hotel and it came to the attention of the hotel that they no longer wanted them there.”
Cain, who was not armed, was shot on the second-floor balcony. He died at the scene.
A short time later, police were called to a nearby house for a report of a man who was dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. It was their suspect, 21-year-old Jacob Grygorzyk.
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Investigators say his parents live at the house.
The shooter posted video of the shooting on Snapchat. In the video, the shooter sets up his camera, shows his gun, aims it at Cain and then fires multiple shots.
“He knew what he was going to do from the start,” Cain’s mother Belinda Adkinson said. “It was planned, it was motivated, it was an assassination. He assassinated my son.”
It’s unknown why the shooter recording the killing. The video was taken down from Snapchat, but to before being shared on other social media platforms.
“Now we have to relive that trauma every single moment when someone said they saw my son on livestream. That should never be,” Adkinson said.
She said she is avoiding the internet for now to make sure she doesn’t see it.
Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the Wyoming Department of Public Safety at 616.530.7300 or Silent Observer at 616.774.2345.
A fellow security guard at the motel said he was working alongside Cain when the shooting happened.
“I was like, ‘Oh my god, I can’t believe I can’t believe this is happening,’” the other security guard, who asked not to be identified, said. “It could have been any one of us.”
He said Cain was just finishing up his shift and getting ready to go home when he went up to deal with the noise complaint. He said Cain did everything by the book and that his actions likely saved lives.
“When we see something like that, we are always supposed to say ‘gun, gun, gun’ like any officer on duty. That’s to alert any security guard around or anyone else in the hotel to hear that (to) come to respond to aid that person or at least call 911,” the other security guard said. “So he did that and … the person next door heard it and a bullet was seconds from killing her as she laid down in the bed.”
Cain, 38, wasn’t supposed to be working at the time, according to family and the co-worker. He was filling in for his uncle, who wanted time off.
“He was a loving person. He was kind,” the other security guard said of Cain. “He would help you out with anything that you need for your room or anything like that. He’s a very, very caring person.”
“It’s a loss we can’t replace,” he added.
A GoFundMe account has been set up to help Cain’s family cover funeral expenses.
