An Uber driver has been charged with killing 6 and injuring 2 others during a shooting in Kalamazoo, Michigan on Saturday.
The suspect, Jason B. Dalton, is believed to have been providing rides to Uber customers between unexplainable shooting episodes in 3 different areas around Kalamazoo County. Dalton admitted to the charges against him, according to the Associated Press, for which he would face a life sentence.
There have been no apparent connections found between the alleged shooter and his victims nor between the victims with each other.
The first shooting took place in front of an apartment, where a woman, Tiana Carruthers, was shot in front of her children. Although the woman was struck multiple times, she is expected to survive.
The gunman killed a father, Richard Smith (53), and son, Tyler (17), at a car dealership 4 hours later, according to the police. Tyler's girlfriend, also 17, witnessed the shootings from the back seat of their car, according to Chief Jeffrey Hadley, the Kalamazoo public safety director.
Minutes later, he opened fire in a Cracker Barrel restaurant parking lot, killing four women and wounding a 14-year-old girl.
The family of the teenage girl told authorities that the teen was initially pronounced brain dead at the hospital, but was able to respond to her mother's voice by squeezing her hand, and was rushed into surgery.
Authorities identified the women who were shot as they sat in their two cars as Dorothy Brown, 74; Barbara Hawthorne, 68; Mary Lou Nye, 62; and Mary Jo Nye, 60.
The authorities state the Mr. Dalton seemed to pick his victims at random, and has not given investigators any indication of his motive.
More than an hour before the shootings began, Matt Mellen hailed a ride in Dalton's car through Uber. Mellen called the police after to report that Dalton was driving erratically, blowing stop signs, and sideswiping cars. As soon as the car had come to a stop, Mellen says that he, "jumped out of the car and ran away".
Dalton was an insurance adjuster who did auto-body estimates and once taught an auto-body repair class at an area community college, according to James Block, who has lived next door to Dalton for 17 years.
On Monday, President Obama told a group of governors that more must be done in order to prevent gun violence. He also discussed the state-federal relationships in fighting terrorism, the Zika virus, energy issues, trade, and prescription drug abuse.
