KALAMAZOO, Mich. (AP) — A gunman who seemed to choose his victims at random opened fire outside an apartment complex, a car dealership and a restaurant in Michigan, killing at least six people during a rampage that lasted nearly seven hours, police said.
Authorities could not say what motivated 45-year-old Jason Dalton, who they said had no criminal record, to target victims who had no apparent connection to him or to each other.
"How do you go and tell the families of these victims that they weren't targeted for any reason other than they were there to be a target?" Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeff Getting said Sunday during a news conference.
Dalton was arrested early Sunday in downtown Kalamazoo following a massive manhunt. He was expected to be arraigned Monday on charges of murder and attempted murder.
Kalamazoo County Undersheriff Paul Matyas described a terrifying series of attacks that began about 6 p.m. Saturday outside the Meadows apartment complex on the eastern edge of Kalamazoo County, where a woman was shot multiple times. She was expected to survive.
READ RELATED STORY: Uber says suspected Michigan gunman was driver for service
A little more than four hours later and 15 miles away, a father and his 18-year-old son were fatally shot while looking at cars at the dealership.
Fifteen minutes after that, five people were gunned down in the parking lot of a Cracker Barrel restaurant along Interstate 94, Matyas said. Four of them died.
A 14-year-old girl had earlier been reported among the fatalities, based on a pronouncement by medical officials. But police later said that she was hospitalized in critical condition.
Authorities did not believe the shootings were targeted at specific people, describing them as "our worst-case scenario," Matyas said.
"These are random murders," he said.
Dalton was arrested without incident about 12:40 a.m. after a deputy spotted his vehicle driving through downtown Kalamazoo after he left a bar parking lot, authorities said.
Matyas declined to disclose anything found in the vehicle except for a semi-automatic handgun.
"In this particular case, we're just thankful it ended the way it did — before he could really kill anybody else," Matyas said.
Authorities were investigating a Facebook post that indicated the suspect was an Uber driver who had taken at least one fare and was driving erratically during the manhunt, Getting said.
Uber did not immediately comment, but a spokesman said the company was preparing a statement.
Asked if 14-year-old shooting victim expected to survive, Kalamazoo County pros. atty. says "I'm going to cross my fingers & hope like hell"
— Kalamazoo Gazette (@Kzoo_Gazette) February 21, 2016
Shots fired at a 4th location. No word on if it is connected to previous shootings. Location: OP Ave pic.twitter.com/HZdFAYIU6B
— Ellen Bacca (@ellenbacca) February 21, 2016
AP VIDEO: Police describe how they captured the Kalamazoo shooting suspect, hope to learn motive: https://t.co/gerW30dqxp
— The Associated Press (@AP) February 21, 2016
Dalton was in contact with more than one person during the rampage, authorities said, but they would not elaborate. Prosecutors said they do not expect to charge anyone else.
"There's no common denominator with any of these," Matyas said. "This person was just waiting in the parking lot of the apartment complex. The one at ... the dealership, they were looking at cars. The ones at Cracker Barrel, they were just sitting in their cars. There is absolutely no common denominator ... through race, age, anything."
Authorities were interviewing Dalton and reviewing his phone. They did not know if the handgun belonged to him, Getting said.
"This is every community's nightmare — when you have someone going around just randomly killing people, no rhyme, no reason," Getting said.
During a Sunday morning news conference, some law enforcement officials wiped teary eyes or got choked up. When the news conference ended, Kalamazoo Mayor Bobby Hopewell and Department of Public Safety Chief Jeff Hadley embraced.
"It's hard to put into words the impact something like this has," Getting said. "How do we put an end to the fear this is causing? There's this sense of loss, there's anger, there's fear."
The four people killed outside the restaurant were identified as 62-year-old Mary Lou Nye of Baroda and 60-year-old Mary Jo Nye, 68-year-old Barbara Hawthorne and 74-year-old Dorothy Brown, all of Battle Creek.
On Sunday, the Cracker Barrel was closed and its parking lot blocked off with crime-scene tape.
With a population of about 75,000, Kalamazoo is about 160 miles west of Detroit. It is home to Western Michigan University and the headquarters of popular craft beer maker Bell's Brewery. The city also is known for the anonymously funded Kalamazoo Promise program, which has paid college tuition of students who graduate from Kalamazoo Public Schools for more than a decade.
