Dalton is first accused of shooting a woman in a Kalamazoo parking lot around 5:45 p.m. Saturday, Michigan State Police said.
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Dalton’s statements to police were used to file charges of murder and attempted murder Monday, two days after six people died in random shootings in the Kalamazoo area.
KALAMAZOO, Mich. – As details emerge about the night authorities say Jason Dalton has admitted gunning down six randomly chosen victims in and around Kalamazoo – attacks apparently carried out over hours during which he also ferried passengers around town as an Uber driver – any hint as to why remains stubbornly elusive.
Michigan State Police Detective [First Lieutenant] Chuck Christensen says Dalton has been cooperative but “stoic” when questioned by police.
Authorities say the shootings began at an apartment complex where a woman was seriously wounded when shot multiple times.
The fatalities at the auto dealership were high school senior Tyler Smith, 17, and his father, Richard, 53, Mattawan Consolidated Schools superintendent Robin Buckler confirmed. More killings quickly followed in a parking lot of a Cracker Barrel restaurant, where Dalton fired at four elderly women: Mary Lou Nye, Mary Jo Nye, Dorothy Brown, and Barbara Hawthorne.
Joe Sullivan, the company’s chief security officer, declined to give a precise timeline of Mr. Dalton’s fares Saturday, and the company would not say when it was alerted to Mr. Dalton’s erratic behavior behind the wheel that evening. His family released a statement offering their “deepest sympathies and condolences to the families of the victims” and vowed to “cooperate in every way that we can to help determine why and how this occurred”.
Investigators are searching for a motive for the attack.
Mellen said he jumped out of the auto at 4:30 p.m., and called the emergency phone number 911.
“No background check would have made a difference in this case because this person didn’t have a criminal history”, Sullivan said.
Uber said riders complained on Saturday night about Mr Dalton’s driving.
Then, after Dalton took a telephone call about a mile from Mellen’s house, Dalton started driving “really erratically”, Mellen said.
Dalton passed a background check and became a driver on 25 January.
Uber said on Monday it would not be changing the way it screened its drivers following the weekend shooting spree.
People will accept one or two fluke incidents, but “if it happens on a repeated basis, you are on thin ice with your brand”, Adamson said.
“I have to say, ‘You are probably correct.’ I can’t imagine what the answer would be that would let us go, ‘OK, we understand now.’ Because we are not going to understand”, the sheriff said.
On Monday, President Barack Obama called Kalamazoo officials and offered “whatever federal support they needed in their investigation”.
The carnage in Kalamazoo, a city of about 75,000 people, was the latest in a series of mass shootings that have elevated gun control as a campaign issue in the November U.S. presidential election.
Mellen said he contacted police and contacted Uber “to get this guy off the road”, calling the trip a “pretty scary ordeal”.
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About an hour before the first shooting, Dalton had been acting strangely and driving dangerously, one passenger said.
