Transcript for Hunt begins for armed driver as he continues to pick up Uber customers: Part 4
?????? After Jason Dalton shot Tiana Carruthers, he then sped off, driving erratically, then sideswiped a car and then went and met his wife at his parent’s house. His parents spend time out of state and they weren’t home at the time. He starts having a conversation with his wife, which she thinks is very stetely out of character for him. He told a story to explain the damage to their vehicle. Told her that he was being shot at by cab drivers and made some statement that they don’t like Uber drivers. He would not look her in the eye, he refused to look her in the eye. He was acting paranoid. He went into the house, retrieved a taurus handgun, tucked it in her waistband, and said, “You need to keep this on you.” He also told her just to stay with the kids and not to leave the house. He said, “You can’t go to work on Monday. You can’t take the kids to school on Monday.” It was totally out of character for him, and she was bewildered. She didn’t know what was going on or why he was talking that way. She had never seen anything like that from him. He said, “I’m not going to tell you what I’m going to do, but when you watch the 11:00 news tonight, you’ll know that it was me.” W that there was anything that she could have or should have done in that moment. Looking back at it now, that’s the place where you say, “I wish she would have done something differently.” And then he left. Originally, there was a humvee at the home that he wanted to take. However, when that car wouldn’t start, he took a different car that belonged to his parents, a dark-colored Chevy hhr. He was now in this dark colored hhr. So, now, the person that they were looking for, who was involved in a shooting in this silver equinox, wasn’t in that car anymore. He goes home and he switches the gun at the Carruthers scene didn’t work perfectly. He took that Glock model 19 and he left it on his workbench, and he grabbed a Walther 9 millimeter and went back out. He took some Uber rides. So he’s already shot this woman. He doesn’t even know if she’s alive. He probably assumes she’s dead, and he’s picking up people and dropping people off. Just think about that. Some of his riders said, really, the only thing that was unique about their ride was they were keeping an eye out for a silver equinox, and here comes a guy in a dark hhr. He says, “Oh, yeah, I’m Jason. I’m the guy you’re looking for. Sorry, I had car trouble,” or something like that, and they get in the car. One passenger said that he was listening to the radio and singing along. Being one of those people in that Uber, can you imagine what that would’ve been like for them? I can’t. I can’t even. It’s just something that you would never in a million years think of. And all around Kalamazoo, unsuspecting families have no idea what Jason Dalton is up to, or that he could pose a danger to the community. We’re talking about families like the Smiths, who are about to have their own encounter with Dalton at a local car dealership. When you think of people who live in Kalamazoo county, you think of the Smith family. Mom, Laurie, dad, rich, son, Tyler, daughter, Emily. Close-knit, very tight family. Rich, he was the life of the party. My brother and my dad, their personalities were identical. They were super close. Tyler was 17. He was a soccer player, very carefree attitude, you know, thought that nothing could touch him. That’s going to leave a mark. When I first met Alexis, you know, his first true love, they were just inseparable. I told him, I said, “Tyler, don’t you dare break her heart. She is a sweet girl.” He realized, “Yeah, you’re right.” Tyler and rich Smith were headed to the Kia dealership to look at trucks. My brother wanted to have a vehicle that he could take up on the dunes. I was out with friends and my phone battery had died. I ended up getting sick and not feeling well and so I went home and went to bed. When rich and Tyler went to the car lot to look at trucks, his girlfriend Alexis stayed in the car, in the backseat. Rich and Tyler started looking at the trucks that Tyler had been looking at and wanted to show him. Can you imagine being a 17-year-old and going to a car lot with your dad and that excitement, and how happy they were. What an exciting time this was for them. Jason Dalton has just dropped off some passengers when he spots a father and son checking out some trucks, and he zeroes in on them and starts heading their way. 911, where’s your emergency? Hi, we’re on business 94. We passed the Kia dealership and we just passed somebody shooting a gun and two people lying on the ground.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
