A botched request for an Uber ride may have drawn Jason Dalton to a Kalamazoo neighborhood, the first of three scenes in a shooting spree that left six dead, two injured last month, investigators' documents show.
Dalton, 45, the Uber driver who authorities say confessed to killing people, had been called to Meadows Townhomes by a 5:15 p.m. Feb. 20 request using the online ride-sharing app. But the requester followed up with a text message to correct the address, which would have led the driver to the residential complex's main office rather than the townhouse unit, according to Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Office reports released Monday.
At about 5:40 p.m., 25-year-old Tiana Carruthers was shot several times at a playground near the unit. Witnesses say the shooter waved Carruthers over and mumbled, asking whether she knew, or was, a woman's name, before firing as many as 10 shots, severely injuring Carruthers. Authorities said she and the other victims appear to have been randomly selected.
Shortly after 6 p.m., Dalton called the person who initially requested the Uber ride. He hadn't responded to her text messages, so she'd used a different Uber driver to pick up the boyfriend for whom she'd been seeking a ride.
"(Dalton) was rude and told her that something had come up and he could not do the pick up. She said that she had contacted another Uber driver that had picked (the boyfriend) up and brought him here," according to a report from the Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Office.
At about 10 p.m. that day, Dalton is said to have shot and killed a father and son who were sitting in their cars at a Kia car dealership in Kalamazoo. About 15 minutes later, police said, he killed four people and critically wounded a 14-year-old girl at a Cracker Barrel parking lot in Texas Township. The victims ranged in age from 14 to 74, and at least 30 rounds were fired, police have said.
Dalton has blamed the Uber app for the rampage, saying it took over his mind and body. He is charged with six counts of open murder and two counts of assault with intent to murder. He also is charged with eight counts of using a firearm in the commission of a felony, and his preliminary examination has been postponed pending a mental-competency exam.
Roughly a few minutes before the first shooting Feb. 20, a man said he saw a silver Chevrolet Equinox, matching the description of Dalton's vehicle, driving strangely in the direction of Meadows Townhomes. As the witness (whose name was redacted from the report) was driving eastbound pulling up to a four-way stop, the Equinox was northbound at a high speed, stopping at the last moment. The witness pulled forward and immediately noticed the Equinox pull behind him and pass him.
"The vehicle sped up at an incredible rate of speed and continued eastbound until it was out of sight," according to the witness' account in the report.
The witness continued eastbound for a few moments before noticing the Equinox somehow "directly behind him" again as it neared a southbound curve that's about 3 miles from the townhome complex.
"He doesn't know from which direction it came from, but it then immediately passed him in the curve. If there had been an oncoming vehicle, the Equinox would've had a head-on accident," according to the report.
The man and his wife, who'd been in the car with him, recognized Dalton on TV the next day as the person driving the Equinox "so aggressively," and they believed based on the time and direction that he was headed to the first shooting scene, according to the report.
The reports also include statements from a former coworker (whose name was also redacted) who knew Dalton for years through his work in the insurance industry. This person said "there seemed to (be) a 'side' to (Dalton) that many people may not have seen unless they worked with him."
The witness said that while at work, he'd seen Dalton "yell at a customer over the phone, eventually slamming the phone down hanging up on the customer. (Dalton) was very upset and stood up and paced around his desk after the conversation," according to the report.
The witness also said Dalton didn't seem to have "any conflict resolution skills and continued to take things personally," according to the report.
The former coworker said he would not have been surprised if Dalton had killed people at the insurance agency where they used to work, but he doesn't understand why Dalton may have picked the people in the Kalamazoo shootings.
"He said that without a divine intervention, (Dalton) would most likely never tell anyone why he killed the people he did. We asked why he thought this, and he said he just didn't think he would," according to the report.
In Kalamazoo last month, the Free Press interviewed Mark Cottingham, owner of Visions Car and Truck in Cooper Township, who said he'd seen a strange, unstable side to Dalton's personality when he came in as an insurance adjuster last September.
He said Dalton missed obvious front-bumper damage and more in his appraisal, so he told him he needed to redo the estimate. Cottingham said he told Dalton he'd need to look under the car to see damage that wasn't immediately clear.
"He goes, 'I'm not laying on the (expletive) ground.' And I'm like, 'Whoa, dude, you're not going to talk to me like that,'" Cottingham said. "I said, 'I've been doing this 20 years, and you're the most unprofessional person I ever spoke to.' And he left."
Cottingham said Dalton returned to complete the work and apologized. But later, when more damage was found, he was mad again.
"We were just saying we 'd never met someone like this, working for a business, who would present himself that way," he said.
