KALAMAZOO, Mich. — A gunman who apparently chose his victims at random terrorized a Michigan county in three shootings over more than four hours, killing six people and critically wounding two others, police said Sunday.
The suspect, identified by the police as Jason B. Dalton, 45, allegedly opened fire Saturday night at an apartment complex in a Kalamazoo suburb, at a car dealership in the city, and outside a suburban Cracker Barrel restaurant.
The authorities were investigating whether Dalton, an Uber driver, had carried passengers on the night of the rampage.
At the apartment complex, a woman was shot multiple times around 6 p.m. She survived and was in serious condition. A little more than four hours later, two men identified by the police as a father and son were shot to death at a Kia dealership.
At the Cracker Barrel, five people in two cars were targeted about 15 minutes later; four of them died. The fifth, a 14-year-old girl, was hospitalized in critical condition.
Jeffrey Getting, the Kalamazoo County prosecutor, grew emotional at a news conference as he described the chaotic scene and the scramble by the police to respond to the shootings and find the gunman.
“There’s this sense of loss, there’s this anger, there’s fear, there’s all these emotions,” Getting said. “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 than they were there to be a target?”
The shooting rampage in Kalamazoo was the latest in a series of mass shootings around the country over the past year, including ones at a church in Charleston, S.C.; at a community college in Oregon; and at a county government gathering in San Bernardino, Calif.
President Obama has repeatedly called for the nation to take steps to curb gun violence and carry out stricter background checks.
Dalton, who was captured without incident early Sunday, was described by neighbors as someone who periodically shot a gun out the back door of his house. Until August 2011, he worked for Progressive Insurance, and he had recently been working as an Uber driver, company spokesmen said.
One Uber passenger, Matt Mellen, said in an interview with WWMT-TV that he had been picked up by a man who appeared to be Dalton late Saturday afternoon, and that the man had driven erratically, speeding through the streets, ignoring a stop sign, and swerving through traffic.
“He wouldn’t stop,” Mellen said. “He just kind of kept looking at me like, ‘Don’t you want to get to your friend’s house?’ and I’m like, ‘I want to get there alive.’ ”
He later told his fiancée what had happened, and she posted a warning on Facebook and said they had called 911.
An Uber official who declined to be identified because of the active investigation said Dalton had passed a company background check but referred all questions about his driving schedule to law enforcement officials.
Getting said investigators were “aware of the allegation that he was an Uber driver” and were examining his “whereabouts and actions” Saturday night.
A semiautomatic handgun was recovered from the car, and it seemed to match the evidence from the shooting scenes, Getting said. “We are very confident that we have the right person in custody,” he said.
Dalton, who has no known criminal record, could be charged with the crimes as early as Monday, authorities said.
Investigators said Dalton was in touch with more than one person during the course of the evening, and they are examining his cellphone for more evidence.
In the rural area outside the city where Dalton lived, Sally Pardo, a retired nurse who lived across the street from him and his family, said she and her husband had always thought of Dalton as a “nice guy” who worked on cars in his spare time. But he used guns in a troubling manner and sometimes sounded a little paranoid, she said.
“He periodically shot his gun out the back door,” Pardo said. “He would shoot randomly into the air.”
In a statement, the Michigan State Police identified four of the victims, all shot in cars outside the Cracker Barrel: Mary Lou Nye, 62, of Baroda, Mich.; and Mary Jo Nye, 60; Dorothy Brown, 74; and Barbara Hawthorne, 68, all of Battle Creek. The 14-year-old girl was in critical condition at Bronson Hospital in Kalamazoo.
Police did not release the names of the two victims killed at the car dealership, but Mattawan Consolidated Schools Superintendent Robin Buchler said they were Tyler Smith and his father, Rich, the Associated Press reported.
Officers from the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety and deputies from the Kalamazoo County sheriff’s office spotted the suspect’s car in downtown Kalamazoo on Sunday morning and pulled him over and arrested him, the authorities said. No shots were fired.
Getting said the early-morning arrest most likely stopped more bloodshed. “There’s just no question that more people would have died,” he said.
Dalton’s neighbors said the police searched his brown one-story home early Sunday.
James Block, 53, who said he had lived next door to Dalton for about 15 years, said he was “well-mannered” and pleasant.
Block said there was no indication of anything sinister and said they had a friendly exchange as recently as Thursday.