Suspect arrested after six die in ‘random’ Michigan shootings
KALAMAZOO, MICH. — A gunman who seemed to choose his victims at random opened fire outside an apartment complex, a car dealership and a restaurant in Michigan, killing six people in a rampage that lasted nearly seven hours, police said.
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 i n 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.
Dalton, who was arrested in Kalamazoo following a massive manhunt, was expected to be arraigned Monday on murder charges.
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.
About four hours later and 25 kilometres away, a father and his 17-year-old son were fatally shot while looking at cars at the 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. Dalton was arrested without incident 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 and had taken at least one fare, Getting said.
A spokesperson for Uber confirmed that Dalton had driven for the company in the past, but she declined to say whether he was driving Saturday night.
Uber prohibits both passengers and drivers from possessing guns of any kind in a vehicle. Anyone found to be in violation of the policy may be prohibited from using or driving for the service.
A man who knows Dalton said he was a married father of two who never showed any signs of violence.
Gary Pardo Jr., whose parents live across the street from Dalton in Kalamazoo Township, de- scribed him as a family man who seemed fixated on cars and often worked on them.
“He would go a month without mowing his lawn but was very meticulous with his cars,” Pardo said, explaining Dalton, at times, owned a Chevrolet Camaro and two Hummer SUVs.
Progressive Insurance confirmed that he once worked for the company before leaving in 2011.
Dalton was an insurance adjuster who did autobody estimates and once taught an autobody repair class at an area community college, said James Block, who lived next door for 17 years.
“He loved to do things outside with his kids” like taking them for rides on his lawn tractor, Block said.
Dalton’s wife and children were unhurt, authorities said.