This week, '20/20' makes a speciality of Jason Dalton, the Uber Driver Killer, and the victims whose lives he took or forever altered. Learn more concerning the Kalamazoo shootings.
Most other people see Uber as the easiest way to get home safely after a night out, but at the night of February 20, 2016, several customers of the app in Kalamazoo unwittingly discovered themselves in a automobile with a mass killer. Jason Brian Dalton, who used to be sentenced earlier this month to life in jail without the possibility of parole, went on a shooting spree that evening, killing six and injuring two others before the now 48-year-old convicted murderer was apprehended.
During and straight away after the shootings, Dalton accepted several Uber fares, which he completed with out main incident — even though one passenger warned friends on social media about her erratic ride with him. Another buyer even jokingly asked Dalton if he was once the killer who was once at the loose. Read on for more main points on Dalton, his killing spree, and the sufferers of his rampage.
Why the Uber motive force killed — according to Dalton himself.
Jason Dalton of Cooper Township, Michigan, pursued an training in regulation enforcement but, according to a friend, in the long run opted now not to pursue it as a occupation, since it could have intended relocating. Instead, he retrained as an auto mechanic in Laramie, Wyoming and worked both as a mechanic and an insurance coverage adjuster. At the time of his crimes he was once supplementing his income by means of using for Uber.
It turns out ordinary that Dalton used to be unwilling to relocate for a role in law enforcement, since he did relocate both for his mechanic coaching and to settle for a task with BMW North American in New Jersey. Eventually, he made his way back to Michigan, the place he translated his knowledge of car frame restore right into a career as an insurance coverage adjuster. He married Carole Dalton in 1995 (she filed for divorce days after her husband used to be arrested for homicide.)
Though circle of relatives, pals, and neighbors classified Dalton as "normal" and "a good family man," coworkers noticed an indignant streak pop out in him on a few events. One former colleague told police he witnessed Dalton yelling at a customer over the phone, "eventually slamming the phone down, hanging up on the customer." Afterwards, "Jason was very upset and stood up and paced around his desk after the conversation," the document persisted. The coworker also stated it wasn't the first incident that called into question his demeanor with shoppers.
Aside from those indicators of a potential imbalance or anger factor, Dalton gave the impression OK to the folk in his lifestyles, however the tale he gave police painted a more troubling picture of his mental state. He blamed the killings on the Uber app, which he stated controlled his thoughts and "took over [his[ whole body, compelling him to carry out the murders. He claimed the app's symbol resembled the insignia for the Order of the Eastern Star (a Masonic organization with no ties to the occult or Satanism) and then showed him a devil figure with a horned cow head that would "give you an project and it will actually take over your whole body."
A comparison of the Uber app screen at the time and the Order of the Eastern Star insignia
Dalton also said he didn't remember the shootings, implying he was in a trance-like state when he carried out the killings. His legal team initially pursued an insanity plea, but on the scheduled day of opening statements in his trial, he entered a guilty plea for all counts.
The Uber Driver Killer's eight victims:
Before the shootings
The day of the shootings, Dalton and a friend went to three different gun stores. He took an Uber fare at 4 p.m. His passenger, Matt Melllen, observed him driving erratically and was alarmed enough during the ride that he called 911 and gave the dispatcher Dalton's license plate number, description, and a description of his car, a Chevy Equinox.
Dalton went home and called his wife, asking to swap the Equinox for their Hummer H3. On the way to his parents' house, where he planned to make the switch, he took another fare, whose destination was the scene of his first shootings.
Victim 1: Tiana Carruthers, 25 (survived)
However, it seems the next rider gave Dalton the wrong address. She texted to inform him the address was wrong and it's believed anger over this mixup incited Dalton's first shooting. Tiana Carruthers told police that Dalton had asked whether she was someone else — possibly the passenger he was looking to pick up — and when she said she wasn't, he shot her several times. She sustained four gunshots to the arm, back, and leg, but survived by playing dead.
After fleeing the scene, Dalton committed a hit and run, with no serious injuries resulting. He met up with his family and explained the damage on the Equinox away by saying he was struck by a cab driver who was irate over losing business to Uber. He gave his wife a handgun and told her to stay home with the kids. When the H3 wouldn't start, he switched to his wife's Chevy HHR and cryptically told his wife that while he couldn't tell her what was going on, she would hear about it on the news.
He went to the bank to withdraw money, then switched guns and went back out to take more fares.
Victims 2 and 3: Tyler Smith, 17, and Richard E. Smith, 53 (dead)
At 10 p.m., Dalton parked at a Kia dealership and shot a father and his son. Witnesses at a Burger King across the street captured him on video as another called 911.
Rich and Tyler Smith
Victims 4-8 (4 dead, 1 survived)
Ten minutes after this double murder, Dalton shot five more people in a Cracker Barrel parking lot five miles from the dealership. He approached a woman in a white van and asked her a question. He shot the woman and her passengers, as well as her friends in another car.
L-R: Mary Jo Nye, Mary Lou Nye, Abigail Kopf, Barbara Hawthorne
All told, this third shooting brought the death toll to six and another sustained serious injuries. Dalton killed sisters-in-law Mary Jo Nye, 60, and Mary Lou Nye, 62. He also killed their friends, Dorothy Brown, 74, and Barbara Hawthorne, 68. Barbara's 14-year-old granddaughter, Abigail Kopf, suffered a gunshot wound to the head and other injuries, but she survived. However, she underwent several surgeries to attend to her brain injury and other wounds, as well as to address complications from a MRSA infection she contracted at the site of her head incision.
How are Dalton's surviving victims now?
Tiana Carruthers' injuries required several surgeries to reconstruct her arm and legs, and she still carries around a bullet in her liver that doctors monitor every few months to ensure it isn't compromising her. Doctors also had to insert metal rods to support both her femurs and another to repair her left arm.
Abigail Kopf nearly succumbed to her injuries and was in critical condition for weeks after she was shot in the head by Dalton. Thankfully, Abigail has made significant recovery and was even able to attend her homecoming dance in 2017. However, she will suffer the effects of her traumatic brain injury for the rest of her life.
20/20 will quilt the case in an upcoming episode.
This Friday, February 22 at Nine p.m. ET, the ABC newsmagazine show will cover Dalton's crimes in detail, including never-before-seen tapes from his interrogation, interviews with his survivors, and one of the circle of relatives still grieving the opposite six sufferers.
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