First Kalamazoo Victim Protected A Group Of Kids From Bullets

Caruthers was shot several times in front of her children at a Richland Township apartment complex, and jumped on her kids to protect them during the first of three separate shootings blamed on Dalton. The 45-year-old was arraigned on 16 charges, including six murder counts, yesterday.

Police said six people were killed and two others were shot and seriously wounded in three locations in Kalamazoo County.

The 9 mm handgun was found by police in Dalton’s Chevrolet HHR after they took him into custody at about 12:40 a.m. Sunday in downtown Kalamazoo.

Dalton has admitted shooting eight people, killing six and wounding two people, who are still hospitalized.

“Our thoughts are with the Dalton family who are also suffering at this time”, he said, according to a report by WZZM.

Federal investigators know where Dalton, 45, purchased the gun, but ATF Special Agent and spokesman Donald Dawkins declined to release that information Wednesday. “He wouldn’t stop. 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, ‘ ” Mellen told local media”.

In a statement, chief security officer Joe Sullivan said the company was “horrified” by the shootings.

Carruthers asked Dalton if he needed any help and that’s when, authorities say, he started shooting.

A man who knows Dalton said he was a married father of two who never showed any signs of violence.

Dalton allegedly killed Richard Smith and 17-year-old son Tyler in the parking lot of a auto dealership.

“When he fled the scene there, he had gotten into a hit-and-run or side-swiped another vehicle”, Hadley said.

Kalamazoo Public Safety says of the suspect: “His demeanor was even-tempered upon arrest according to the prosecutor”.