Reports: Kalamazoo shooting suspect admits killings

KALAMAZOO, Mich. — An Uber driver charged with murdering six people has admitted to the fatal weekend shootings in Kalamazoo, Michigan, media reports said on Monday.

Local broadcaster Fox 17 and others quoted county prosecutor Jeff Getting as saying that the suspect, Jason Dalton, had confessed to the shootings. The Kalamazoo prosecuting attorney's office would not immediately confirm the reports.

Jason Dalton, 45, who worked as an Uber driver, was denied bail at an arraignment on Monday for the fatal weekend shootings of six people in Kalamazoo as police searched for a motive in a case that raised questions about how the car service vets its drivers.

Dalton, who faces 16 charges, including six of murder, which can bring up to life in prison, made his first court appearance via video link and did not enter a plea. He was seen on a monitor at the Kalamazoo County jail wearing glasses and dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit as two guards flanked him.

When asked if he had a message for the community, Dalton said that he preferred to "remain silent."

The judge denied bail for Dalton and set March 3 for the next hearing.

Prosecutors alleged Dalton randomly shot multiple times at people during a five-hour period on Saturday at an apartment complex, a car dealership and a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Kalamazoo, about 150 miles west of Detroit.

Police were investigating reports Dalton also may have driven customers of the Uber car-hailing service the night of the rampage. Two people were wounded in the shooting, including a teenage girl who was initially thought to have died. No motive has been given.

"The Kalamazoo community is reeling from these senseless acts of violence that took so many innocent lives from us," said Jeffrey Getting, the county's prosecuting attorney.

Initial checks with a key federal agency and the Southern Poverty Law Center indicate Dalton was unknown to both law enforcement and counter-terrorism agencies for having any kind of known connection to extremist groups.

Getting said on Sunday the victims apparently were chosen at random, "because they were available."

"They were shot multiple times, multiple — nine, 10, 11 shell casings at each of these scenes," he said.

Michigan State Police said the shooting began at about 5:30 p.m. with the report of a woman wounded outside an apartment building. At about 10 p.m., a father and son were killed at the car dealership.

Dalton allegedly opened fire outside the restaurant about 15 minutes later, killing four women identified as Mary Lou Nye, 62, of Baroda, Michigan; and Dorothy Brown, 74; Barbara Hawthorne, 68; and Mary Jo Nye, 60, all of Battle Creek, Michigan, state police said.

The Detroit Free Press said neighbors described Dalton as a father of two who "loved guns," worked on cars and had a day job as an insurance salesman.

In the suspect's Kalamazoo neighborhood, residents said they never saw Dalton distressed.

He was "very level and calm, and (a) real nice guy," Chad Landon told CNN affiliate WXYZ.

For the past 10 years, Sally and Gary Pardo have lived across the street from Dalton's house.

Sally Pardo told CNN that Dalton is married with two children. They seemed to be a "typical American family," she said.

"We're in shock. We're wondering what might have caused him to do this (to) all those innocent families and the victims," her husband, Gary Pardo, told CNN affiliate WXYZ. "It's just horrific."

Dalton did have an obvious passion, Gary Pardo said: "I know he liked guns."

Hadley, the public safety chief, said authorities have seized weapons from Dalton's home. But it doesn't explain the rampage.

"For all intents and purposes, he was your average Joe," Hadley said. "This was random."

What we know and don't know

Here's what we know and don't know about the attacks:

The shootings

What we know:

The gunman shot eight people in three different parts of the county Saturday evening, authorities said.

Around 5:40 p.m., he shot a woman in front of her children at an apartment complex parking lot, prosecutor Jeffrey Getting said. The woman was struck multiple times but is expected to survive.

Four hours later, the gunman killed a father and son at a car dealership, police said.

Minutes afterward, he drove to a Cracker Barrel restaurant and opened fire in the parking lot, killing four women and wounding a 14-year-old girl.

Two of the shootings were captured on video, Getting told CNN on Sunday.

"These were very deliberate killings. This wasn't hurried in any way, shape or form," said Getting, who has reviewed the video with police.

"They were intentional, deliberate and, I don't want to say casually done. Coldly done is what I want to say."

What we don't know:

How the gunman chose the victims.

"There isn't a connection that we've been able to establish between any of the three victim groups with each other, any of the three victim groups with the defendant," Getting told CNN's "New Day" on Monday. "It just is, well, it was random, unprovoked violence."

Kalamazoo County Undersheriff Paul Matyas called it "your worst nightmare" in an interview with CNN affiliate WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids.

The seemingly random selection of victims makes the rampage even more difficult to cope with, said Kalamazoo Public Safety Chief Jeff Hadley.

"There is this sense of loss, anger (and) fear," he said. "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?"

The suspect

What we know:

Two hours after the final shooting, police found a suspect: Jason Brian Dalton, 45. He was arrested without incident in downtown Kalamazoo. Police also seized a weapon from his car.

The gun, a semi-automatic pistol, according to Getting, seems to match shell casings at the three shooting scenes, he said.

Dalton was driving for Uber the night of the shootings and even picked up and dropped off passengers between attacks, a source with knowledge of the investigation told CNN.

Matt Mellen told CNN affiliate WWMT-TV he rode in Dalton's car just before the shootings started.

"We got about a mile from my house, and he got a telephone call. After that call, he started driving erratically, running stop signs," Mellen told the station.

WOOD-TV reported that another man told the station he had sought an Uber ride as a safer alternative to walking with a killer on the loose, only to apparently end up in Dalton's car.

"I kind of jokingly said to the driver, 'You're not the shooter, are you?' He gave me some sort of a 'no' response ... shook his head," the station quoted the man, whom it identified only as Derek, as saying.

"I said, 'Are you sure?' And he said, 'No, I'm not, I'm just tired.' And we proceeded to have a pretty normal conversation after that."

Uber's chief security officer told CNN that Dalton passed a background check. Police also said Dalton did not have a criminal record.

"For all intents and purposes, he was your average Joe," the public safety chief said. "This was random."

Dalton is expected in court Monday for arraignment. He will likely be charged with six counts of murder, two counts of assault with intent to commit murder and eight charges of using a firearm during the commission of a felony, Getting said.

The murder charges carry a maximum penalty of life in prison without parole, he said.

What we don't know:

Who that phone call was from when Dalton was driving Mellen, and whether the call may have played a role.

The victims

What we know:

Police have not released the name of the woman wounded in front of her children at the apartment complex.

Richard Smith, 53, and his son Tyler, 17, were looking at a vehicle at a car dealership when both were shot and killed, police said.

The four women killed at the Cracker Barrel parking lot were already in two vehicles when they were shot. Authorities identified them as Dorothy Brown, 74; Barbara Hawthorne, 68; Mary Lou Nye, 62; and Mary Jo Nye, 60.

A 14-year-old girl who was in the passenger seat of one of the vehicles was struck and is in "very, very critical condition," Hadley said.

What we don't know:

How many more victims might have been killed if police didn't catch the suspect.

"There is just no question more people would have died if (police) didn't find him when they did," Getting, the prosecutor, said.

The motive

What we know:

Police say they don't think the shootings were acts of terrorism.

Under federal law, "terrorism" refers to a violent or dangerous crime that appears to be intended to either (1) intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (2) influence government policy by intimidation or coercion; or (3) affect government conduct by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping, constitutional lawyer Page Pate wrote.

"My best sense is that it was somebody who was having an issue at the time and for whatever reason they decided to do what they did," Kalamazoo County Sheriff Richard Fuller told CNN's "New Day" on Monday.

What we don't know:

Virtually everything else about the motive.

"That's always a difficult thing to try and figure out when you're dealing with these random acts of violence," Getting said Monday.

While Dalton was known to like guns, "there wasn't anything that would put him on the police's radar as someone who would be likely do to something like this," he said.

Some of those answers could be coming, however. Fuller told CNN on Monday that Dalton is cooperating with police investigating the shootings.