Jason Dalton, 45, was arraigned Monday on six counts of murder as well as attempted murder and firearms charges following an hours-long shooting rampage at three locations in the Kalamazoo area.
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A Granger couple says the 45-year-old Uber driver, accused of killing six people and injuring two during the Kalamazoo shooting spree, picked them up just six days prior to the shootings.
A man working as an Uber driver admitted to the fatal weekend shootings of six people in Kalamazoo, Michigan, a police detective testified on Monday in a case raising questions about how the auto service vets its drivers.
“The suspect will be appearing by video feed from the Kalamazoo County Jail”, the Kalamazoo County Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement. The randomness of the shootings, coupled with reports that Mr. Dalton was shuttling Uber passengers across the city in between attacks, has rattled investigators. Richard Smith, 53, and his 17-year-old son Tyler Smith were shopping for cars at the dealership when they were gunned down in the parking lot.
Fifteen minutes after that, five people were gunned down in the parking lot of a Cracker Barrel restaurant along Interstate 94, Matyas said.
Pfaff said he instantly remembered Dalton when he saw his photograph on the news Sunday. Reports of bad driving are more common, he added, and the company contacts drivers first to gain more facts before taking action.
When asked if he had anything to say, Dalton, who remained emotionless through the proceedings, said he preferred to “remain silent”.
The two surviving victims include a 14-year-old girl, Abigail Kopf, who is in critical condition and Tiana Carruthers, 25, who was seriously wounded but is expected to recover. “How do you prioritize that feedback and how do you think about it?”, the spokesperson said. Prosecutors said he confessed to the random killings, but officials have not specified any motive for Dalton’s rampage.
He says Dalton was a good football player who wrestled and was on the track team, and “never got into trouble”. “He was described by the police chief in Kalamazoo as a regular guy, exactly the type of guy that any corporation would like to hire”.
“It’s hard to put into words the impact something like this has”, Getting said.
Passenger Matt Mellen told WWMT that that he hailed a ride at around 4:30 p.m. Saturday, more than an hour before the shootings began.
The gun shop is in Plainwell, about 20 miles north of Kalamazoo.
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After that, the driver became extremely erratic, blowing stop signs and sideswiping cars, Mellen said.
