Police corner suspect after 7 killed in Michigan

Children among the dead; alleged gunman leads police on chase, takes hostage, then kills self.

July 7,2011 - BREAKING NEWS

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Dozens of police officers with guns drawn descended Thursday night on a Grand Rapids, Mich., neighborhood and cornered a suspect wanted in the deaths of seven people, including two children.

Police said that after a high-speed pursuit, the suspect crashed his vehicle, ran and broke into a home and took what was intially reported to be two people hostage. One hostage, a 53-year-old woman, was released, but police later said there were still two hostages inside the house.
Grand Rapids Police Chief Kevin Belk said police are communicating with the man, identified as 34-year-old Rodrick Shonte Dantzler.
Three shots were fired from inside but no one was believed injured, The Grand Rapids Press reported.
The Press said that the suspect threatened to kill a hostage if he didn't get a Gatorade and cigarettes and that a hostage came out and got the items and returned inside the home. The woman was released about 20 minutes later.
The newspaper said police radio traffic indicated that the suspect was threatening to commit suicide.
Police received a call from the suspect "indicating he was unhappy about the pursuit," according to the newspaper.
State police Lt. Col. Gary Gorski said residents were told to stay in their houses during the standoff north of downtown Grand Rapids on Rickman Avenue beside Soft Water Lake.
"It's an awful situation, and he's still at large," Mayor George Heartwell said. He did not know any motive or Dantzler's relationship to any of the victims.

Chase begins The manhunt began after four people were found dead in one Grand Rapids home and three were found in another across town. A 10-year-old girl was reported dead in a home in the 2400 block of Plainfield Avenue Northeast, the Press reported, and a child was dead in a home in the 1200 block of Brynell Court Northeast.
The suspect led officers on a chase that tore through the city's downtown. At one point, the suspect crossed a wide grassy median on the interstate and drove the wrong way down the highway while more than a dozen squad cars pursued him. The highway remained closed hours later.
Witnesses told NBC station WOOD of Grand Rapids that shots were fired from the vehicle at police during the chase.
Two other people were hit, but their wounds were not considered life-threatening. Some of the gunshots struck the windshield of a police cruiser in downtown Grand Rapids. No officers were hurt, Belk said.
The suspect abandoned his car on I-96 and ran into the woods near Soft Water Lake and Rickman Avenue, then broke into the home.

'Domestic issues' A friend told reporters that the killings stemmed "from domestic issues" and a neighbor said Dantzler had recently separated from his wife.
The home where Dantzler is believed to have taken a hostage is a short distance from the Brynell Court house, where the four bodies where found earlier Thursday.
Lisa Schenden lives with her husband and their children two blocks from that home. Schenden said the homeowners are a couple whose daughter has a daughter with the suspect.
Schenden said she did not hear the shooting but did see the suspect and his daughter drive up to the house earlier in the day.
"Just last night, my kids went over there swimming, and I went over with them," she said.
Sandra Powney lives across the street from one of the homes where the shootings happened and said she had seen Dantzler at the ranch house, where a couple had lived for more than 20 years with two adult daughters.
Powney said she had been at home all day and did not realize anyone had been killed until police converged on the cul-de-sac in the midafternoon.
"For a while we couldn't come outside," she said. "They didn't know if there was someone still inside the house."
A few miles away, neighbors said police converged on Dantzler's home after the shootings.

Chelsea Snoderly, told The Grand Rapids Press that Dantzler was "really quiet, down-to-earth.”

Cory Morse / AP

Grand Rapids police investigate the scene on Knapp Street on Thursday.

She said he walked his dog and was fond of his pet.
She told the reporter that the suspect had separated from his wife and saddened by the recent developments.
“I really didn’t want to push it,” Snoderly told the newspaper.

Sonia Bergers said Dantzler lived in the home with a woman she assumed was his wife and their daughter, a girl who appeared to be about 10 years old.
"We've talked with the person they assumed did the shootings," Mary Lahuis said. "You would see him going up and down the street — and you'd hear him going up and down the street."
State Corrections spokesman Russ Marlan said records show Dantzler was discharged from the prison system in 2005 after serving time for assault less than murder. He has not been under state supervision since then, Marlan said.
WZZM reported that Dantzler has an extensive criminal record, also including misdemeanor assault and battery, domestic violence and breaking and entering.