Kalamazoo, Mich., shooting kills 6, Uber driver arrested

A gunman killed six people and wounded two in Kalamazoo County, Mich., in random parking lot shootings, police said on Sunday.

Uber's chief security officer, Joe Sullivan, said45-year-old Jason Dalton of Kalamazoo,who was arrested a short time after the shooting rampage ended, drove for the company and had passed a background check.

"We are horrified and heartbroken at the senseless violence in Kalamazoo, Mich. Our hearts and prayers are with the families of the victims of this devastating crime and those recovering from injuries. We have reached out to the police to help with their investigation in any way that we can," Sullivan said in a statement released Sunday.

A man opened fire late on Saturday outside an apartment complex, a Kia car dealership and a Cracker Barrel restaurant over a period of little more than four hours, Kalamazoo police said on their Facebook page on Sunday.

A 14-year-old girl initially reported to have been shot at the restaurant, becoming the seventh fatality, was in fact wounded and is in serious condition, a prosecutor said.

"Victims were selected at random," police said. They described the shootings in and near Kalamazoo, a city about 240 kilometres west of Detroit, as intentional but gave no motive.

The carnage began about 6 p.m. on Saturday when a woman was wounded outside a Kalamazoo County apartment building.

"The suspect went to an apartment complex and saw a woman walking with several children and opened fire, hitting that woman four times. That woman was rushed to the hospital and she's in critical condition,"Ryan Young of CNN told CBC News.

Around 10 p.m. police were called to the car dealership where two people, reported to be a father and son, were killed.

Four people were killed about 15 minutes later in a Cracker Barrel parking lot in Kalamazoo County, where Dalton opened fire on people after a brief conversation, police said.

Suspect had no known criminal record

The gunman fired on two cars, killing four women and leaving a teenage girl in critical condition, Young reported.

Police used video surveillance footage from businesses to get a description of a Chevrolet HHRthey believed was used in the shootings and found the suspect in the parking lot of a bar shortly after midnight, where he surrendered without a struggle, Young said.

Dalton is in custody and was "even tempered" when he was arrested in downtown Kalamazoo, police said.

A semiautomatic pistol was allegedly found inside Dalton's vehicle.

Prosecuting attorney Jeff Getting said he expected the suspect to be formally charged on Monday.

Police said he had no known criminal record.