A gunman who allegedly chose his victims at random during a seven-hour killing spree that left six dead in Michigan over the weekend is set to appear in court Monday.
But details have already begun to emerge about the suspected madman’s rampage that include him picking up and dropping off passengers in between killings.
Authorities identified the shooter as Jason Dalton, a 45-year-old Uber driver and former insurance adjuster who police said had no criminal record. They could not say what motivated him to target victims with no apparent connection to him or to each other in the Saturday night shootings.
“How do you go and tell the families of these victims that they weren’t targeted for any reason other than they were there to be a target?” Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeff Getting said Sunday at a news conference.
Kalamazoo County Undersheriff Paul Matyas described a terrifying series of attacks that began about 6 p.m. Saturday outside the Meadows apartment complex on the eastern edge of Kalamazoo County, where a woman was shot multiple times. She was expected to survive.
A little more than four hours later and 15 miles away, a father and his 17-year-old son were fatally shot while looking at cars at a dealership.
Fifteen minutes after that, five people were gunned down in the parking lot of a Cracker Barrel restaurant, Matyas said. Four of them died.
“These are random murders,” Matyas said.
During the killing spree, Dalton allegedly continued to pick up and drop off passengers.
“I halfheartedly joked at him and said ‘You are not the shooter are you?’,” a man identified only as Derek asked his driver, alleged killer Jason Dalton, just minutes before Dalton was arrested, according to local station WOOD-TV.
The man hired Dalton to drive him and his family back to their hotel, which happened without incident twenty minutes after midnight.
Dalton was arrested at about 12:40 a.m. Sunday after a deputy spotted his vehicle driving through downtown Kalamazoo after leaving a bar parking lot, authorities said.
Matyas declined to disclose anything found in the vehicle except for a semi-automatic handgun.
By midday, authorities were investigating a Facebook post that indicated the suspect was driving for Uber during the manhunt, Getting said.
BREAKING: We’ve talked to woman who posted about bad Uber driver before shooting. Doesn’t want to comment right now. pic.twitter.com/XLyF9cPCrW
— Luke Stier (@LukeStier) February 21, 2016
The suspect was in contact with more than one person during the rampage, authorities said, but they would not elaborate. Prosecutors said they did not expect to charge anyone else.
Authorities were interviewing Dalton and reviewing his phone. They did not know if the handgun belonged to him, Getting said.
“This is every community’s nightmare — when you have someone going around just randomly killing people, no rhyme, no reason,” Getting said.
Tammy George said the woman who was shot outside the apartment building is her next-door neighbor. She and her family heard the gunfire, ran outside and saw the woman on the ground.
Four bullets flew into a closet of George’s home, she said. Her son, James, was playing video games with two friends a few feet away from where the bullets pierced the wall.
“I checked out the back window and saw a car speeding off,” said James George, 17.
On Sunday morning, Tammy George came outside to clean the parking lot.
“I was worried about the kids coming out and seeing their mom’s blood,” she said. “I cleaned it up. No kid should have to come out and see their parent’s blood on the ground.”
During a Sunday morning news conference, some law enforcement officials wiped teary eyes or got choked up. When the news conference ended, Kalamazoo Mayor Bobby Hopewell and Department of Public Safety Chief Jeff Hadley embraced.
The four people killed outside the restaurant were identified as 62-year-old Mary Lou Nye of Baroda and 60-year-old Mary Jo Nye, 68-year-old Barbara Hawthorne and 74-year-old Dorothy Brown, all of Battle Creek.
The two victims killed at the car dealership were identified as Tyler Smith and his father, Richard, who was 53.
A 14-year-old girl wounded at the restaurant was hospitalized in critical condition.
Late Sunday night, mourners streamed into a Kalamazoo church for a prayer service intended to honor the victims and help residents cope.
With a population of about 75,000, Kalamazoo is about 160 miles west of Detroit. It is home to Western Michigan University and the headquarters of popular craft beer maker Bell’s Brewery. The city also is known for the anonymously funded Kalamazoo Promise program, which has paid college tuition of students who graduate from Kalamazoo Public Schools for more than a decade.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
hmmm another shooter, he is not black, muslim nor mexican. Yes we all want our country back.
Great comment! All lives do matter! GOD CREATED US ALL and one of the 10 commandments is “DO NOT KILL”!!
Actually, that’s a mistranslation. The term used more accurately translates to murder, not kill. Obviously applies in this case as well, but that mistranslated commandment has been misused many times; for example, as a specious argument against the death penalty which this perpetrator clearly deserves.
Andre Del Rio……….you are correct….Hebrew translates into thou shall not murder…… conscientious objectors aklso did not know this!
THERE ARE A LOT OF FOLKS THAT SAY ONLY BLACK LIVES MATTER,
But then the Black Thugs don’t think Black Lives Matter because they keep killing Black Citizens all over the Country in record numbers.
“Cast in the name of God, ye not guilty”
Amazing how many people think they’re holding one of those axes.
The state-run, fifth column propagandists have no problem in posting the PICTURES and identity when it happens to be a Caucasian person, but when it is a Muslim or Black they try to hide the identification! Wake up sheeple, your being played like a fiddle by this evil regime. Isuspect that he was mind controlled by this Satanic regime so as to disarm “US” from them; this odd incident happening just after they had murdered Scalia isn’t a coincident! REVOLUTION will be the SOLUTION – bet on it!
Like the unAffordable Care Act – isn’t that why we have the Department of inJustice? It is time for a change and time to throw out the business as usual Professional Politicians.
In large cities like NYC, Boston or Philly regular taxi owners have to pay several thousands of dollars to those cities for a medallion to operate. Yet, Uber skirts these requirements. Not fair. I would never get in a non registered taxi with a Uber joker.
Main Street: You are mistaken. I am a Uber driver in Des Moines, Ia. We are registered and have marked cars. You need to be sure you know what you are saying before you comment. Your comment shows without a doubt you are not informed.
You better start believing in demons they are real just ask the son of sam. Thois is a end times prophecy coming to pass
Amen!
Trump or Hillary. Are going to pick him as a running mate
No, they are not picking Cruz.
John R.
A month from now the news should say the killer at Kalamazoo has been tried and convicted and scheduled for execution the next week.
Wheels of justice don’t turn that fast. And they shouldn’t. We as a society are too emotional about it right now to be setting punishment. Make the decision when the emotions fade and logic returns.
Looks like another typical loser……in America……..WHo finally snapped his rubberband
I bet you will find that he was taking anti-depressants because they cause some people side effects that make them want to kill others or commit suicide.
So where are the updates…. I expected to hear about the why and what drove this man into a killer… I wonder if he had something to prove.. The failure to do proper vetting into the people you are hiring is getting way out of hand… Is he another person that snapped or has he got another hidden identity ????
DustyFae
He had a total back ground check, and had no record. A screw came loose for sure,
sick of the killings for no reason except all of the shooters needed mental health care but most states and the gpverment shut down hospitals that held the mentally ill and let them have a big voice in getting no help we need new laws to be able to put them in hospital and take meds
Can’t say anything about king muslim Obama on this site now can you.
WHAT KIND OF MEDS WAS HE ON ?
If I ever saw a FAT LOSER…. But he was on psychotropic drugs and unleashed for gun control.
Flog him well before executing him with a chain saw to the neck – slowly! Televise it so others so inclined can be forewarned of the consequences. Liberally splash alcohol in the wounds during the flogging and execution. These methods would definitely reduce crime!
And set the alcohol ablaze whilst in the process of administering punishment.
All executions should be made in public so as to show consequences. Backroom injections accomplish little.
I read above comments and most are right. However, one said to judge once it all furry passes. Let me tell you that it might pass for many who don’t give a hoot about it, but that will not happen to those that suffered such losses and those that are still unsure if they live or not. Not far from today this guy is going to get an appointed lawyer that will claim, as the guy in Colorado, insanity. What has it been done with the Boston bomber, the guy from Colorado, the guy from Nevada, the guy from Sandy Hook, and others that are still draining taxpayers funds keeping them alive and bothering the courts in appeal after appeal. There should be a law for these cases that stipulate that if the individual is found guilty without a doubt, the individual be executed immediately. Jails would be a lot emptier. Otherwise, this Nation should buy one of those islands in the Pacific Ocean, big enough to house all these murderers and leave then there to survive if they can.
CRC,
Mine and others exact views, wants and wishes.