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Kalamazoo shootings suspect said Uber app controlled him

Posted at 4:54 PM, Mar 14, 2016
and last updated 2016-03-14 16:54:15-04

KALAMAZOO, Michigan — A police report says the man charged with killing six people and wounding two others in Kalamazoo area shootings told investigators he was being controlled by the Uber app through his cellphone.

Authorities say Jason Dalton carried out the shootings in between driving passengers for Uber. Dalton said "it feels like it is coming from the phone itself and he didn't know how to describe that," according to the report released Monday.

Dalton is charged with murder and attempted murder in the Kalamazoo area shootings Feb. 20 outside an apartment complex, at a restaurant, and at a car lot. Two people survived.

Police say in the report that Dalton said "he is not a killer and he knows that he has killed."

A judge has ordered Dalton undergo a mental competency exam with the Center for Forensic Psychiatry before moving the case forward. A preliminary hearing date has been rescheduled for May 10.

Documents released Monday include 87 pages of police reports from all three shooting locations and the arrest location. The release also includes audio recordings of some of the 911 calls from the evening as well as the dash cam video of Dalton's arrest.

>> The Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety also released 134 pages of documents. You can see thosedocuments here.

The shooting spree began about 6 p.m. Feb. 20 when Tiana Carruthers was shot at the Meadows Townhomes. Carruthers is credited with saving the lives of children who were outside on a playground. Carruthers was seriously injured and is still hospitalized.

Later, at about 10 p.m., Richard and Tyler Smith, were shot and killed while looking at cars at Seelye KIA on Stadium Drive. About 15 minutes later, four people, Mary Lou Nye, Mary Jo Nye, Dorothy Brown and Barbara Hawthorne, were shot and killed outside the Cracker Barrell restaurant. Abigail Kopf, 14, was shot and thought to have died, but is now in rehab recovering from critical injuries.

Dalton was arrested after midnight in downtown Kalamazoo. Investigators later found 15 guns in his home.

The Associated Press contributed to this report