DETROIT (AP) – A man charged with killing six people in a series of shootings in southwestern Michigan interspersed with stints as an Uber driver told investigators he was being controlled by the ride-hailing app through his cellphone, police said Monday.
According to a police report, Jason Dalton told authorities, “it feels like it is coming from the phone itself” and he didn’t know how to describe that. He also described something “like an artificial presence,” the report said.
Dalton is charged with murder and attempted murder in the Kalamazoo-area shootings Feb. 20 outside an apartment complex, a restaurant and at a car lot. Two people survived. Investigators say Dalton didn’t know the victims and described the shootings as “random.” They still are trying to determine a motive. A judge earlier this month ordered Dalton to undergo a mental competency exam.
The details are in documents released by the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety and Kalamazoo County sheriff’s office in response to public records requests by The Associated Press and others.
Police said in the report that Dalton told investigators “he is not a killer and he knows that he has killed.” Dalton added it’s “scary” because he “isn’t sure how much he had or had not done,” and was afraid “that maybe he could’ve killed his family,” according to the report.