Michigan shootings suspect kills self, ending standoff

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- A gunman opened fire in two Michigan homes Thursday, killing seven people before leading police on a high-speed chase through downtown Grand Rapids and taking three hostages. The standoff ended when he killed himself with a gunshot to the head, authorities said.

The hostages were released unharmed.

Authorities did not have a motive for the suspect, 34-year-old Rodrick Shonte Dantzler, or disclose his exact relationship with those he killed.

The manhunt for Dantzler began after four people were found dead in one home and three were discovered in another across town. Two of the dead were children.

"We believe there were prior relationships with at least one person at each location, so we think there were some difficulties there," police chief Kevin Belk said.

Following the discovery of the bodies, Dantzler led officers on a chase, crashed his car and then took the hostages, police said.

Dozens of officers with guns drawn cordoned off a neighborhood near a small lake in the northern part of the city and shut down nearby Interstate 96.

Records show Dantzler was released from state prison in 2005 after serving time for assault less than murder. A spokesman for the prison system said he had not been under state supervision since then.

At one point during the chase, 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. Belk said he crashed the vehicle while driving down an embankment into a wooded area of the highway, which remained closed hours later.

Two other people were shot when the suspect fired at police during the chase, but their wounds were not considered life-threatening. One man was wounded in what Belk described as a "road rage" attack after the suspect fired through the rear window of the vehicle. A woman was hit in the arm in a separate shooting.

The names of the dead were not immediately released. Autopsies were scheduled for today.

Neighbors said police congregated at Dantzler's home a few miles away after the shootings.

Sonia Bergers said Dantzler lived with a woman she assumed was his wife and their daughter, a girl who appeared to be about 10 years old.

Mary Lahuis and her husband had just returned home after having coffee at a nearby fast-food restaurant when police began running down their street with guns, yelling at people to get in their homes.

Of Dantzler she said: "You would see him going up and down the street. And you'd hear him going up and down the street."

Lisa Schenden lives with her husband and their children two blocks from the home where four people were killed. She said the homeowners are a couple whose daughter has a daughter with the suspect.

Schenden said she did not hear the shooting either, but she saw 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.

Outside the two-story, wood-sided home where the three people were killed, neighbors stood in clumps Thursday evening, quietly talking as investigators scoured the house. As officers left, people disappeared indoors and a single police car remained on the block.

The only indication of anything unusual was three bouquets of flowers on the porch steps.

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Associated Press writers John Flesher and Kathy Hoffman in Grand Rapids and Corey Williams and David N. Goodman in Detroit contributed to this report.