BAY CITY, MI — For running off with a gun after his friend shot himself in the parking lot of a Bangor Township Kroger, a parolee is going to be staying in prison for the immediate future.
After pleading guilty to one count of felon in possession of a firearm, 30-year-old Christopher L. Mulligan in late September appeared before Bay County Circuit Judge Jessie Scott Wood for sentencing. The judge did not impose any additional incarceration time due to him being on a parole hold and back in prison.
Wood did order Mulligan to pay $258 in fines and costs. That sum is still due as of Oct. 23, as is $598 from a Bay County judge in September 2021 sentencing Mulligan to 18 months to three years in prison on three convictions of assaulting, resisting, or obstructing police.
Mulligan was already on parole when he committed those crimes, as judge in March 2017 sentenced him to 19 months to 15 years in prison on two home invasion convictions.
The Michigan Department of Corrections again paroled Mulligan in April 2023. As a felon and a parolee, he was prohibited from possessing guns, though he violated this on June 15.
About 11:15 a.m. that day, Bay County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a reported shooting in the parking lot of the Kroger at 945 N. Euclid Ave. Deputies arrived to find a 28-year-old man suffering from a gunshot wound to his upper thigh.
The man had been putting his .45-caliber handgun in his waistband or holster when he compressed the trigger and sent a bullet into his leg, Sheriff Troy R. Cunningham said. Mulligan, his friend, grabbed the gun and ran away with it before deputies arrived, the sheriff said.
The injured man legally owned the handgun, the sheriff said.
The wounded man was taken to McLaren Bay Region hospital for treatment of a non-life-threatening injury. Meanwhile, deputies put out a be-on-the-lookout advisory for his absent friend.
Within a couple of hours, a person in the 700 block of North Dean Street called 911 after seeing Mulligan crossing through several backyards. Deputies responded and arrested Mulligan, Cunningham said.
Once in custody, Mulligan admitted to taking the gun and hiding it behind Tractor Supply Co., 2886 Wilder Road, nearly two miles from Kroger. Deputies went there and found the gun, Cunningham said.
Mulligan is now incarcerated at the Charles Egeler Reception and Guidance Center in Jackson, serving time on his prior convictions. His maximum possible release date is Dec. 24, 2034.