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2016 Kalamazoo shootings
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2016 Kalamazoo shootings
On the night of February 20, 2016, a spree shooting took place at an apartment complex, a Kia car dealership, and outside a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Kalamazoo County, Michigan. Six people were killed, and two others were injured.
Police detained a 45-year-old Uber driver, Jason Brian Dalton, in the shootings. He was subsequently charged with murder, assault, and criminal firearm use two days after the shootings. After he was found competent to stand trial, Dalton's lawyers planned a legal insanity defense for their client. Disagreeing with the strategies of his lawyers, Dalton pleaded guilty to all charges in a Michigan court on January 7, 2019.
Hours before the shootings, Jason Brian Dalton went to three different gun stores with a friend. At one of them, he purchased a black jacket with pockets designed to conceal a handgun. Though the store owner said Dalton was in "good spirits" during the visit, the friend who accompanied Dalton said that he was a "little more quiet than normal" during the trip. Dalton was an occasional customer at the same store, but never purchased a firearm there.
Shortly after 4:00 p.m. on February 20, 2016, Matt Mellen requested an Uber pickup to drive him over to a friend's house. He was picked up at 4:21 by Dalton, who was driving a silver Chevrolet Equinox. During the drive, Dalton received a call, and after finishing, he allegedly "started driving crazy". At one point, he entered an oncoming lane of traffic, drove through a median strip, ignored a stop sign, and sideswiped a Ford Taurus, all the while ignoring Mellen's pleas to stop. When Dalton came to a stop at another stop sign, Mellen jumped out and called 9-1-1. He gave the dispatcher information about Dalton's Equinox, including its license plate number, and the dispatcher put out a "Be on the lookout" notification on the vehicle. There were multiple calls to 911 by others before the following incidents took place, all of which were ignored.
At 4:34, Dalton returned home and then called his wife 41 minutes later, asking her for the keys to their Chevy HHR. They agreed to meet at his parents' residence, located approximately 10 miles (16 km) away. On the way, however, Dalton accepted another pickup request at 5:15, from a woman who wanted him to pick up her boyfriend at a Richland Township apartment complex.
The shootings began around 5:42 EST when a woman was shot a total of four times in a parking lot of the same apartment complex. She survived her injuries. According to the woman, she was confronted by a man in a vehicle with a German Shepherd-type dog sitting in the back. The driver asked her if she was another person by a different name. When she replied that she was not, the man turned his car around and fired repeatedly at her. She survived by playing dead. Approximately fifteen rounds were fired; ten shell casings were recovered at the scene of the first shooting. Five children, including the woman's daughter, were present at the scene of the shooting, but they escaped unharmed through her efforts.
Investigators believe that Dalton's request for an Uber ride at the apartment complex had become botched. The requester texted Dalton moments after the initial request with a correction of the address, which would have led him to another location in the same area. She later attempted to call him to follow up with him on the address correction, but he did not respond. A witness later reported seeing an Equinox driving "so aggressively" towards the apartment, at one point cutting him off at a southbound curve and risking a head-on collision; he later recognized Dalton on the news as the Equinox's driver. At 6:05, approximately twenty minutes after the first shooting occurred, Dalton called the requester, saying that he hadn't responded to her text and that he could not do the ride because "something had come up".
One minute after the shooting, Dalton's Equinox was seen driving through a red traffic light at an intersection approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) away from the crime scene. It struck another vehicle and fled the scene, with the driver calling 9-1-1 to report the crash. At around the same time, a neighbor found the injured woman, who was soon treated by responding emergency personnel.
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2016 Kalamazoo shootings
On the night of February 20, 2016, a spree shooting took place at an apartment complex, a Kia car dealership, and outside a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Kalamazoo County, Michigan. Six people were killed, and two others were injured.
Police detained a 45-year-old Uber driver, Jason Brian Dalton, in the shootings. He was subsequently charged with murder, assault, and criminal firearm use two days after the shootings. After he was found competent to stand trial, Dalton's lawyers planned a legal insanity defense for their client. Disagreeing with the strategies of his lawyers, Dalton pleaded guilty to all charges in a Michigan court on January 7, 2019.
Hours before the shootings, Jason Brian Dalton went to three different gun stores with a friend. At one of them, he purchased a black jacket with pockets designed to conceal a handgun. Though the store owner said Dalton was in "good spirits" during the visit, the friend who accompanied Dalton said that he was a "little more quiet than normal" during the trip. Dalton was an occasional customer at the same store, but never purchased a firearm there.
Shortly after 4:00 p.m. on February 20, 2016, Matt Mellen requested an Uber pickup to drive him over to a friend's house. He was picked up at 4:21 by Dalton, who was driving a silver Chevrolet Equinox. During the drive, Dalton received a call, and after finishing, he allegedly "started driving crazy". At one point, he entered an oncoming lane of traffic, drove through a median strip, ignored a stop sign, and sideswiped a Ford Taurus, all the while ignoring Mellen's pleas to stop. When Dalton came to a stop at another stop sign, Mellen jumped out and called 9-1-1. He gave the dispatcher information about Dalton's Equinox, including its license plate number, and the dispatcher put out a "Be on the lookout" notification on the vehicle. There were multiple calls to 911 by others before the following incidents took place, all of which were ignored.
At 4:34, Dalton returned home and then called his wife 41 minutes later, asking her for the keys to their Chevy HHR. They agreed to meet at his parents' residence, located approximately 10 miles (16 km) away. On the way, however, Dalton accepted another pickup request at 5:15, from a woman who wanted him to pick up her boyfriend at a Richland Township apartment complex.
The shootings began around 5:42 EST when a woman was shot a total of four times in a parking lot of the same apartment complex. She survived her injuries. According to the woman, she was confronted by a man in a vehicle with a German Shepherd-type dog sitting in the back. The driver asked her if she was another person by a different name. When she replied that she was not, the man turned his car around and fired repeatedly at her. She survived by playing dead. Approximately fifteen rounds were fired; ten shell casings were recovered at the scene of the first shooting. Five children, including the woman's daughter, were present at the scene of the shooting, but they escaped unharmed through her efforts.
Investigators believe that Dalton's request for an Uber ride at the apartment complex had become botched. The requester texted Dalton moments after the initial request with a correction of the address, which would have led him to another location in the same area. She later attempted to call him to follow up with him on the address correction, but he did not respond. A witness later reported seeing an Equinox driving "so aggressively" towards the apartment, at one point cutting him off at a southbound curve and risking a head-on collision; he later recognized Dalton on the news as the Equinox's driver. At 6:05, approximately twenty minutes after the first shooting occurred, Dalton called the requester, saying that he hadn't responded to her text and that he could not do the ride because "something had come up".
One minute after the shooting, Dalton's Equinox was seen driving through a red traffic light at an intersection approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) away from the crime scene. It struck another vehicle and fled the scene, with the driver calling 9-1-1 to report the crash. At around the same time, a neighbor found the injured woman, who was soon treated by responding emergency personnel.