6 killed in Michigan parking lot shootings, suspect arrested

KALAMAZOO, United States

AP Photo

A gunman who authorities believe chose victims at random shot people in the parking lots of a western Michigan apartment complex, car dealership and restaurant, killing at least six and seriously injuring two others - including a 14-year-old girl - during a rampage and subsequent manhunt that spanned nearly seven hours, authorities said, according to the Associated Press.

Forty-five-year-old Jason Dalton of Kalamazoo County was arrested early Feb. 21 in downtown Kalamazoo following a massive manhunt after the shootings began on the evening of Feb. 20, said Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety Chief Jeff Hadley. Hadley said Dalton, who is being held at the county jail, has no known criminal history.

Kalamazoo County Undersheriff Paul Matyas described a terrifying rampage that began about 6 p.m. outside the Meadows Apartment complex in Richland Township, on the eastern edge of Kalamazoo County, where a woman was shot multiple times and seriously wounded. She was scheduled for surgery the following morning.

A little more than four hours later and 15 miles away, a father and son were fatally shot while looking at cars at the dealership. Fifteen minutes after that, five people - including the teenage girl who police originally said had been killed, based on a pronouncement by medical officials - were gunned down in the parking lot of a Cracker Barrel restaurant along Interstate 94, Matyas said. Police said Sunday morning the injured teen remained in serious condition.

Matyas said authorities did not believe the shootings were targeted at specific people, describing them as “our worst case scenario.”

“These are random murders,” he said.