"Man killed ex-girlfriends, daughter, police say" July 09, 2011|Associated Press
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - A former convict who went on a deadly shooting spree in western Michigan targeted two former girlfriends, fatally shooting both of them and five members of their families, including his 12-year-old daughter, police said yesterday.
At the start of his hours-long rampage, Rodrick Shonte Dantzler tracked down his daughter and her mother and killed them, along with the mother’s parents. He then went to a different house and killed another former girlfriend, her sister, and her 10-year-old niece.
Dantzler “went out hunting’’ his victims, Grand Rapids Police Chief Kevin Belk said. He said the gunman used cocaine and alcohol on the day of the slayings.
Ban booze.
The 34-year-old former prison inmate began the spree Thursday afternoon before leading police on a high-speed chase through downtown Grand Rapids. He crashed his car and took several hostages in a stranger’s home, then killed himself with a shot to the head late that night.
Investigators did not know what triggered the attack, but the police chief said Dantzler appeared to be “mentally unstable.’’
“I don’t have a clinical diagnosis,’’ Belk said. “Clearly he was a very troubled individual.’’
Dantzler was sentenced in 2000 to 3 to 10 years in state prison for assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder. He was paroled in May 2003 and discharged from parole in May 2005. A spokesman for the prison system said Dantzler had not been under state supervision since then....
Too busy opening your email, listening to your phone calls, and reading your texts.
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