Gunman in Michigan kills seven, takes hostages, then takes his own life

A gunman suspected of killing seven people in Grand Rapids, Michigan, took his own life after he led police on a high-speed chase through the city on Thursday and then barricaded himself in a home with two hostages, according to the Associated Press. Residents in the immediate area had been told to stay inside. The police were communicating with the man, 34-year-old Rodrick Shonte Dantzler, and he had released one hostage, a 53-year-old woman, unharmed. The second hostage was also unharmed.

The bodies of seven shooting victims, including two children, were found at two different homes in Grand Rapids earlier in the day, leading to a manhunt for Dantzler, according to Reuters.

The home where Dantzler was barricaded was surrounded by the police and they were negotiating with him before he shot himself, the Grand Rapids police chief, Kevin Belk, said. Dantzler ran into the home after a 15-minute chase when he crashed his vehicle, said police spokesman Jon Wu, according to CNN. During the car chase, a female pedestrian was wounded by gunfire, and another suffered non-life-threatening injuries, officials said.

The police chief said the standoff with Dantzler was "very tense."

Dantzler was described by the police as being 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighing 250 pounds, and he was considered armed and dangerous.

Police believe the shootings in the two separate homes could be related and that Dantzler knew at least one person at each of the homes, Belk said.

According to the New York Times, the 8-hour chain of events began around 3 p.m.:

The police said a 34-year-old man had called his mother and told her he had killed his wife. Public records show an address for Mr. Dantzler, who describes himself on Facebook as a “tech building engineer,” on the street where the police arrived.

Within the next two hours, the police found two women and a 10-year-old girl dead at a home nearby and four more people, including another child, dead in the basement of another home. The police think the killings were related to a domestic issue. “We do believe there were prior relationships with at least one person in each location,” Chief Belk said.