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Crime

On November 11th, 2022, at around 3 a.m., 21-year-old Bryce Salter was at a strip mall near the Western Michigan campus in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

The soon-to-be father was standing near a Dodge Durango that was running and had three people in the back seats.

The vehicle belonged to 28-year-old Damien Lang’s girlfriend.

Lang didn’t know Salter and assumed he would jump in the front seat and steal the SUV, so he walked over and confronted him.

The two men argued, then Lang pulled out a gun and knocked Salter to the ground.

When Salter got back to his feet, he fought back. Lang shot him three times, then jumped in the Durango and fled the scene. Salter was driven to the hospital and later died from his injuries.

After the shooting, Salter fled to Lansing, Michigan, which is an hour away from Kalamazoo.

Along the way, the maniac took apart the gun and got rid of it along with the bullets.

Luckily, the incident was caught on surveillance, and there was traffic camera footage near the area of the crime, which helped police obtain the vehicle’s license plate.

Lang was arrested hours after the crime.

During a police interview, he claimed he blacked out during the shooting.

He also stated, “I don’t know what happened I don’t know. I don’t know what made me shoot him.”

Legal Proceedings

During a court hearing in January 2023, Salter’s father yelled at Lang, telling him, “That’s my son you killed.”

Lang laughed and said, “So?”.

Salter’s father replied, “That’s why you ain’t ever getting out.”

Lang went to trial in October 2023 and was found guilty of second-degree murder and four gun charges.

At his sentencing hearing three months later, Salters’s father said, “My son was a great guy. he was very respectful, very humble, very loving. Everyone loved Bryce. He had a great smile, just a really swell person,”

The judge sentenced Lang, who was previously convicted of armed robbery, to 70 to 100 years in prison.

As Lang was being escorted out of the courtroom, Salter’s father shouted, “go cry about the snacks you don’t get.” Lang replied by saying, “I never cry” then went on a profane tirade, taunting the dead man’s son.