{"id":181872,"date":"2026-02-17T20:14:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T20:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/181872\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T20:14:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T20:14:14","slug":"man-found-dead-at-proud-lake-was-fatally-shot-search-underway-for-killer-the-oakland-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/181872\/","title":{"rendered":"Man found dead at Proud Lake was fatally shot; search underway for killer \u2013 The Oakland Press"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The man found dead at Proud Lake State Recreation Area was murdered, according to detectives investigating the case \u2014 and the shooter is at-large.<\/p>\n<p>The body of Andre Sontay Avant Jr., 19, of Inkster, was discovered early Monday near the park\u2019s boat launch off Wixom Road in Commerce Township. The Oakland County Medical Examiner\u2019s Office conducted an autopsy and concluded the cause of death was a gunshot wound and the manner of death was homicide, officials said.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"man\" width=\"267\" height=\"356\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/TOP-L-homicideproudlake0217.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"2681925\" \/>The victim has been identified as Andre Sontay Avant Jr., 19, of Inkster (photo shared by Oakland County Sheriff&#8217;s Office)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis was a brutal and senseless homicide that has left a family and community searching for answers,\u201d Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard stated in a news release. \u201cWe are committed to pursuing justice for this individual and holding every person involved fully accountable. We need the public\u2019s help \u2014 if you saw anything suspicious in the area or have any information, no matter how small it may seem, please come forward. There is a reward being offered, and your information could be the key to bringing those responsible to justice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A park visitor discovered Avant\u2019s body and notified deputies shortly before 9 a.m., the sheriff\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n<p>As an investigation continues, anyone with information about the shooting, or who may have seen Avant on Sunday or early Monday, is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-SPEAK-UP. Crime Stoppers is offering a reward of up to $2,000 for information leading to an arrest in the case. Tipsters remain\u00a0anonymous.<\/p>\n<p>Proud Lake State Recreation Area has entrances off Glengary Road and Wixom Road.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The man found dead at Proud Lake State Recreation Area was murdered, according to detectives investigating the case&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[6881,86178,8528,134,1331,143,38411,145,144,86177],"class_list":{"0":"post-181872","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-body-found","9":"tag-commerce-township-crime","10":"tag-fatal-shooting","11":"tag-homicide","12":"tag-murder","13":"tag-oakland","14":"tag-oakland-county-sheriff","15":"tag-oakland-headlines","16":"tag-oakland-news","17":"tag-proud-lake-state-recreation-area"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}