Key Hearing Next For Man Charged With Killing 6 In Kalamazoo
KALAMAZOO (WWJ/AP) - A judge is holding a key hearing to determine whether a Michigan man will go to trial for random shootings that killed six people and injured two more.
Jason Dalton, 45, is accused in three separate shootings in the Kalamazoo-area in February, which authorities said he carried out between picking up riders as an Uber driver. A judge on Friday must decide whether there's enough evidence to move the case to trial court.
Police have quoted Dalton as saying a "devil figure" on Uber's app was controlling him the night of the shootings.
Dalton is charged with murder and attempted murder. He's been found mentally competent to understand the charges and assist his lawyer.
Police say Dalton shot people outside an apartment building, a restaurant and a car dealership in between driving for Uber. Six people were killed. Two victims survived.
Documents released in March by the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety and Kalamazoo County sheriff's office contained a police report in which Dalton told investigators he was being controlled by the ride-hailing app through his cellphone.
Dalton told authorities after his arrest that when you "plug into" the Uber app, "you can actually feel the presence on you." He said the difference between the night of the shootings and others was that an icon on the Uber app that is normally red "had changed to black."
Police wrote in the report that Dalton also described how the Uber app on his cellphone took him over the day of the shootings. Dalton also said that at one point he went to his home, put several guns into a bag and put them in his vehicle.
In the report he describes the shootings at each of the three locations.
The first victim, Tiana Carruthers, 25, was asked if she had called Uber for a ride before she was shot multiple times outside an apartment complex. Carruthers survived the shooting.
Later, Richard Smith and his 17-year-old son, Tyler, were shot and killed while looking at vehicles at a car dealership. Dalton said he told them, "hello," before they were shot.
When Dalton ended up outside a Cracker Barrel restaurant, he shot 62-year-old Mary Lou Nye after she declined his request for a dollar, according to a state police report. Dalton told detectives that he had asked the woman "if she could spare a dollar to make America great again." Dalton said he was going to leave after shooting Nye, but he heard other people screaming, so he turned his gun on them.
Nye, her 60-year-old sister Mary Jo Nue, 74-year-old Dorothy Brown and 68-year-old Barbara Hawthorne were killed. A fifth person — 14-year-old Abigail Kopf — was wounded.
Dalton said "he came back to reality" when police arrested him early the next morning, according to the report.
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