Minors were inside a Center Line house when Erica Marie Sanders was shot, and that the accused man spoke to them before leaving, say prosecutors.
CENTER LINE, Mich. — Prosecutors say a mother of four was shot to death in her home while children were there, leaving the presence of those children at the center of a homicide case that has drawn regional and national attention.
Erica Marie Sanders, 38, was killed March 17 at a home on Sterling Street in Center Line. Her boyfriend, Zachary Fuqua, 39, is charged with second-degree murder and five gun related counts. While the charge itself is severe, the allegation that children were in the home when Sanders was shot has shaped nearly every public account of the case. Prosecutors said three of Sanders’ four children, ages 5 to 17, were home at the time, and one court description said the shooting happened in their presence.
Authorities say the shooting unfolded around 5:30 p.m. in the kitchen. Officers from the Center Line Department of Public Safety were sent to the house and found Sanders with an apparent gunshot wound. Emergency efforts did not save her. Local stations described the block as a residential stretch near Van Dyke Avenue, the kind of ordinary neighborhood where police tape and patrol lights can transform the scene in minutes. WXYZ reported that Sanders’ four children were home at the time, while later prosecutor statements focused on three children being there during the fatal episode. That difference has not changed the broad thrust of the case, which is that minors were in the house when Sanders was killed and remained there in the immediate aftermath.
What prosecutors added in court made the account more disturbing. Assistant Macomb County Prosecutor Jonathan Mycek said Fuqua shot Sanders in the back of the head and then, while leaving, gave candy to the children and said, “Here y’all babies go.” That allegation quickly became the most repeated line in follow up coverage because it captured the abrupt shift from violence to a casual gesture inside the same scene. Officials have not publicly released interview records from the children, and no court filing available to the public has yet laid out exactly which child saw what. Those unknowns matter because witness testimony, age and proximity can shape how evidence is introduced later in the case.
Outside the allegations involving the children, the known facts remain spare but significant. The Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office said Fuqua fled after the shooting and was later arrested. A community newspaper, citing police, reported he was caught near 10 Mile Road and Wainwright Street. Prosecutors also said Fuqua was legally barred from possessing a firearm and ammunition, which is why the case includes counts beyond homicide. Those added charges may become important even before the murder allegation is fully tested because they turn on narrower questions of possession and status. At the same time, officials have not publicly outlined a motive, whether there had been prior calls to the address or whether any protection orders or earlier domestic violence complaints existed.
There are also details about the days before the shooting that sit at the edge of the case without yet defining it. Law and Crime reported that a social media post attributed to Fuqua on March 14 said, “Going out with a bang.” The phrase has been widely repeated, but it has not been presented in the prosecutor’s official release as proof of premeditation or intent. In a case charged as second-degree murder rather than first-degree murder, prosecutors do not need to show the same level of planning, though they still must prove malice and causation. For now, the social media reference remains part of the public story around the case rather than a tested piece of courtroom evidence.
The procedural path is already set. Fuqua was arraigned March 20 before Judge Suzanne Faunce in 37th District Court, denied bond and remanded to custody. He is scheduled for a probable cause conference at 8:45 a.m. April 1 before Judge John Chmura and for a preliminary exam April 8 before Faunce. Those hearings are the next points at which the case may become more detailed in public, especially if investigators describe forensic evidence, witness accounts or the route police say Fuqua took after leaving the house. Local reports have said no defense attorney was listed in court records at the time they were reviewed.
In many homicide cases, the public first fixes on the charge. Here, the emotional center has been the children left inside the house after the shooting. Prosecutor Peter J. Lucido said the allegations had caused an “immeasurable and devastating loss” for Sanders’ children and family, language that highlighted the broader damage behind the criminal counts. The case has also moved beyond the normal local news cycle because it combines a domestic violence allegation, child witnesses and a courtroom claim so stark that it altered how the story is remembered. That is likely to remain true as the case moves forward.
For now, Fuqua remains jailed without bond, and the next public update is expected in district court on April 1. Until testimony begins, the fullest public account is still the one prosecutors offered when they said a mother was killed in her kitchen and children were left to absorb what followed.
Author note: Last updated April 14, 2026.