Two children dead in rampage ending with hostages, standoff
Detroit News staff and wire services
Grand Rapids— A man fatally shot himself Thursday night after a four-hour hostage standoff with police following a rampage in which authorities said he killed seven people, including two believed to be an ex-girlfriend and their daughter.
Grand Rapids Police Chief Kevin Belk said 34-year-old Rodrick Shonte Dantzler killed himself inside the north-side home he had stormed around 7:30 p.m.
Dantzler had released a 53-year-old female hostage unharmed earlier in the evening. Two remaining hostages were unhurt, Belk said.
"We'd have much rather got the suspect to surrender peaceably ... but that was not the situation," he said in a news conference carried live by WZZM-TV.
Dantzler had been on the run for hours, leading police on a high-speed chase through downtown Grand Rapids after the deadly shootings began around 3 p.m.
The victims were discovered at two locations — four at one home and three at another across town, said the Grand Rapids Police Department. Two of the victims were children, including a 10-year-old girl, Belk said.
The names of the victims were not immediately released. Autopsies were scheduled for today.
"At this point, we don't know the motive," Belk said late Thursday. One news report said the cause of the rampage was domestic issues.
"This is a rare occurrence anywhere," said Mayor George Heartwell. "A homicide like this is exceedingly rare. It's an awful situation."
Two other people were shot when the suspect fired at police during the chase, 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.
Police said Dantzler fled the shooting scenes in a cream-colored Lincoln Town Car. A car matching that description exchanged gunfire with another car.
During the chase, a pedestrian was struck by the car Dantzler was driving, the Grand Rapids Press reported.
At one point during the chase, the suspect crossed a wide grass median on the interstate and drove the wrong way down the highway with more than a dozen police cars in pursuit. The highway was later closed for hours.
Police dispatchers said the tires on the suspect's vehicle were shot and the car crashed in a ditch on Interstate 96.
The suspect continued fleeing on foot, dispatchers said.
He then barged into the home where police said he held hostages. As the standoff developed and police swarmed the neighborhood with guns drawn, residents were warned to stay in their homes.
The standoff shocked residents — including those who had crossed paths with the suspect.
Sandra Powney, who lives across the street from one of the homes where some of the shootings happened, said she had seen Dantzler at the ranch house several times. A couple with two adult daughters had lived there for more than 20 years, she said.
"I've seen him there," she said about Dantzler. "He would come periodically."
Powney said she had been at home all day and didn't realize anyone had been killed until police converged on the cul de sac about 3 p.m.
"For a while we couldn't come outside," she said. "They didn't know if there was someone still inside the house."
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."
Lisa Schenden lives with her husband and their children, 11 and 8, two blocks from the home where four people were killed.
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.
State Corrections spokesman Russ Marlan said records show Dantzler was discharged from the prison system in 2005 after serving time for an assault conviction in 2000. He has not been under state supervision since then, Marlan said.
He also previously worked at a pizza restaurant, according to public records.
Relatives couldn't be reached for comment Thursday night.
A Facebook page registered under Dantzler's middle and last name showed that he studied to be a tech building engineer and he lived in Grand Rapids.
Dantzler's page also listed him as belonging to an online cause called "Stop Animal Cruelty, the people who beat animals should be beaten back!"
Several users commented on a hastily created Facebook page called "We Need to Find Rodrick Dantzler," which had about 500 supporters within hours.
"Dantzler is an animal," one man wrote.
The shootings Thursday night immediately drew responses elsewhere online, including Twitter, with one woman tweeting, "Ok So Grand Rapids Has OFFICIALLY Became Detroit!"
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