Authorities said in a news conference this morning a suspect is under arrest – 45-year-old Jason Brian Dalton. Dalton had no known criminal history.
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His shooting spree began at 6pm local time, when he fired four rounds at a woman, who was with her children at the time, in the parking lot of an apartment complex.
Shortly after 10 p.m., two people were shot and killed at a auto dealership, Matyas said.
Less than a half-hour later, the gunman shot five people sitting in cars at the Cracker Barrel restaurant on 9th Street in Texas Township, killing four women.
Buchler was particularly concerned about finding ways to help the students feel safe and said student have been chatting on social media all day, with some of them saying they’re scared and frightened by the sheer randomness of the tragedy.
No motive has been established, and police believe the victims were chosen at random.
Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeffrey Getting confirmed that authorities are looking to a Facebook post by some apparent Uber passengers who were in Dalton’s vehicle when he was allegedly involved in a sideswipe hit-and-run crash, ran at least one stop sign, and was driving erratically just before the shootings.
Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeff Getting says the suspect is likely to face multiple counts of first-degree murder and attempted murder when he appears in court on Monday. “There is absolutely nothing to link these things”, he said.
Matyas told WWMT-TV that the man did not resist when approached by law enforcement officers, and that weapons were found in his vehicle. Block said he knew Dalton had a handgun because the two men had discussed it.
“There’s a sense of loss, there’s an anger – there’s fear – there’s all these emotions and then you put on top of that: 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?”
It’s believed Dalton acted alone, state police said.
“For all intents and purposes, he was your average Joe”, the public safety chief said.
Kelly Bainbridge was with her fiance and friends at Bell’s Brewery in Kalamazoo when she started getting texts and calls from concerned family members about the gunman.
Jason Dalton is seen in a mugshot photo, superimposed over the parking lot of a Cracker Barrel seen in Kalamazoo, Mich, on February 21, 2016, one of the alleged sites of a shooting spree that left six dead that he is accused of, in a composite image.
Mr Dalton was arrested in the early hours of Sunday following a police manhunt.
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She was then able to respond to questions by squeezing her mom’s hand several more times, and was rushed into surgery.
