The shooter appeared to be “driving around, finding people, and shooting them dead in their tracks,” authorities said.
Jason Brian Dalton.
Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Office / Via jail.kalcounty.com
A man is in custody after six people were killed in Kalamazoo County, Michigan, in a string of shootings Saturday night that officials described as "senseless, random violence."
The shootings in three separate locations and left two people critically injured, including a 14-year-old girl. Kalamazoo County Undersheriff Paul Matyas had told BuzzFeed News the girl had succumbed to her injuries, but officials on Sunday morning said she was still alive.
"She is seriously, gravely injured, but she is still alive at this point," Kalamazoo County prosecuting attorney Jeff Getting told reporters early Sunday.
Matyas told BuzzFeed News the shootings took place over several hours.
"In summary what it looks like is we have somebody just driving around, finding people, and shooting them dead in their tracks," Matyas added during a broadcast on WOOD TV, the local NBC affiliate.
The gunman was at large for several hours Saturday until authorities took a "strong suspect" into custody early Sunday morning. Matyas told BuzzFeed News the suspect is a 45-year-old man who lives in Kalamazoo County. Officers pulled him over, and he "voluntarily gave up," Matyas said.
Officials on Sunday named the suspect as Jason Brian Dalton. County Sheriff's records show he was booked into prison at 4:40 a.m. local time on homicide charges.
"We are very confident that we have the right person in custody," Getting said. "We have significant evidence to tie him to these incidents."
Police found weapons in the man's vehicle, though Matyas did not say how many or what kind. He declined to provide more information about the suspect, and said police had not identified a motive for the shootings.
"Right now our initial assessment is that these were just random killings," Matyas said. "There is no rhyme or reason."
"He seemed pretty even tempered," Getting said of Dalton. "He did not present in a combative way or in an emotional way at all. He was cooperative with the officers in being taken into custody and brought into the station."
The shootings happened at three different locations.
The first took place around 6 p.m. at Meadows Townhomes in Kalamazoo when a woman was shot. The woman was taken to the hospital and was in serious condition on Sunday morning, Getting said.
Another shooting happened about four hours later at the Seelye Kia dealership in Kalamazoo County, where two men — an 18-year-old and an "adult male" — were killed, Getting said. The pair were father and son, WWMT reported.
Around 15 minutes later, four women in two vehicles were killed outside a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Texas Township, also in Kalamazoo County. A 14-year-old girl in one of the cars was seriously injured.
All the victims were Kalamazoo County residents, Getting said, although he declined to identify them, pending the notification of family members.
"They appear to have been chosen at random because they were available," he said.
SOURCE: BuzzFeed
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