Several people shot, killed in random MI shootings

Six people were shot and killed and several others wounded in MI on Saturday night in a series of apparently random shootings, according to authorities who said they had the suspected gunman in custody.

The first shooting took place around 6 p.m., when a woman was shot four times in an apartment complex parking lot, Matyas said.

Authorities recovered a weapon from the suspect’s auto, he said. The third victim was in critical condition early Sunday morning. “On top of that, how do you tell the families of these victims that they were not targeted for any other reason than they were a target?” Following the news conference, Kalamazoo Mayor Bobby Hopewell and Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety Chief Jeff Hadley embraced. Dalton had previously passed a background check, and he appears to have had no prior criminal record. Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeff Getting said Sunday during a news conference. Formal charges will be brought Monday, he said.

MSP and KDPS are assisting the Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Department in the investigation, Matyas said.

A Facebook post has also emerged, in which a woman frantically warns people that her fiancé was in Dalton’s Uber vehicle and that he was driving “very erratically” and refused to let her fiancé out of the auto.

Dalton was arrested early Sunday in connection with the shootings. He said a 14-year-old girl who was shot at a Cracker Barrel restaurant was not killed, as previously reported, but was “gravely injured”.

“This is your worst nightmare”, Kalamazoo County Undersheriff Paul Matyas told CNN affiliate WOOD-TV.

Dalton was arrested in a neighborhood about 12:40 a.m. after a deputy spotted his vehicle driving through downtown Kalamazoo after he left a bar parking lot, authorities said. A father and son were shot and killed while sitting in their vehicle.

Matyas said the gunman was randomly confronting people and shooting them. The next shooting occurred at a KIA dealership where he shot and killed two people a little after 10:00 pm. She said that they had called 911 about the incident but officials “didn’t seem all that concerned”.

They described the shootings in and near Kalamazoo, a city about 150 miles west of Detroit, as intentional but gave no motive.

Meanwhile, students at the nearby Western Michigan University have slammed the publically funded institution for failing to issue appropriate security measures during the deadly incident.