Mich. Shooting Suspect Was an Uber Driver

May have given rides between 3 shootings Saturday night
By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 21, 2016 11:32 AM CST
Mich. Shooting Suspect Was an Uber Driver
Police investigate the scene after a random shooting on Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016 in Kalamazoo. Jason Dalton of Kalamazoo County was arrested early Sunday in Kalamazoo following a massive manhunt.   (Mark Bugnaski/Kalamazoo Gazette-MLive Media Group via AP)

The man expected to be charged in the Kalamazoo shooting spree that has so far claimed six lives and injured eight people was an Uber driver who was giving rides to customers in between opening fire on three separate locations, reports WOOD-TV. Uber confirmed that suspect Jason Dalton worked as a driver for the ride-sharing company, and had passed a background check; Dalton had no previous criminal record. "We are reaching out to the police to help with their investigation in any way that we can," the company said in a statement, adding that "we are horrified and heartbroken."

Dalton reportedly dropped a group at a Fairfield Inn Marriott, right next-door to the Cracker Barrel where four women were killed and a 14-year-old girl was critically injured. A woman at the hotel heard about 10 shots and said she saw the suspect driving away at what the station calls "a normal rate of speed." Police are also investigating a Facebook post by a woman whose fiance rode with an Uber driver, "Jason," who was driving erratically prior to the shootings and sideswiped another vehicle. Meanwhile, notes the Washington Post, the incident in Kalamazoo was the nation's 42nd mass shooting of 2016. (More mass shootings stories.)

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