Jason Dalton Case: Guilty Plea, Life Sentence, and Uber Settlement

Jason Dalton, an Uber driver with no criminal record, killed six people and seriously wounded two others in a shooting spree across Kalamazoo County, Michigan, on February 20, 2016. He pleaded guilty in January 2019 to all 16 charges against him and is serving life in prison without the possibility of parole. The Kalamazoo shooting also produced a civil suit against Uber from a passenger who rode with Dalton hours before the killings; the company settled in 2023.¹

What Happened on February 20, 2016

The violence began at 5:42 p.m. at the Meadows Townhomes in Richland Township. Dalton shot Tiana Carruthers, then 25, four times as she shielded children outside her apartment. She was hit in the arm, liver, and leg, and survived.² Between that first attack and the next, Dalton kept picking up Uber fares.³

Just after 10 p.m., he drove to the Seelye Kia dealership on Stadium Drive and shot Richard Smith, 53, and his 17-year-old son Tyler Smith as they looked at a pickup truck in the parking lot. Both died.²

Sixteen minutes later, at 10:24 p.m., Dalton opened fire on people sitting in vehicles in the parking lot of a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Texas Township. He killed four women: Dorothy “Judy” Brown, 74; Barbara Hawthorne, 68; Mary Lou Nye, 62; and Mary Jo Nye, 60. A fifth victim, 14-year-old Abigail Kopf, was shot in the head and initially believed dead. She survived.²⁴

Just after midnight, Kalamazoo County Sergeant Jim Harrison spotted Dalton’s dark blue Chevrolet HHR and pulled him over on Ransom Street in downtown Kalamazoo. He was in custody within about a minute. Officers recovered several long guns and handguns from his home and a semi-automatic handgun from his vehicle.⁵⁶

The Uber Ride Before the Shootings

Roughly an hour before the first shooting, a passenger named Matt Mellen requested an Uber and was picked up by Dalton around 4:20 p.m. The six-minute, three-mile trip started normally. After Dalton took a phone call, his driving turned dangerous. Mellen said Dalton ran stop signs, sideswiped another car, drove on the wrong side of the road, and swerved around traffic. When Dalton finally slammed on the brakes, Mellen jumped out and ran.⁷

Mellen called 911 and gave police the vehicle description. He and his girlfriend also spent more than an hour trying to reach Uber’s 24/7 incident response team to report the driver and get him deactivated. They could not get through. Uber later acknowledged that the complaint had been categorized as “bad driving” rather than a violent incident, placing it in a lower-priority queue. Dalton was not deactivated until after his arrest.⁸

Who Jason Dalton Was

Dalton was 45 at the time of the shootings, a married father of two who lived in a ranch home on a one-acre property in Cooper Township, Michigan.⁹⁶ He had no prior criminal record. Neighbors described hearing daylong, rapid-fire shooting sessions on his property every two to three months, and Dalton told others he kept firearms “just for protection,” citing worries about local burglaries.

He had passed Uber’s background check on January 25, 2016, less than a month before the shootings. By that night he had completed roughly 100 fares and carried a 4.73 out of 5 rating.¹⁰

Interrogation and the “Devil App” Claim

Michigan State Police and Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety detectives interrogated Dalton for about four hours. He initially invoked his right to remain silent. Investigators described him as emotionless throughout, with no fluctuation in his voice.¹¹

Dalton blamed the Uber app. He said that when he opened it he saw a “devil head” resembling a horned cow, and that after he pressed the symbol, “that is where all the problems went after that.” He told detectives the app alternated between red and black modes and that when it switched to black it took control of his mind and body. He said it communicated through audible dings and told him there would be “no repercussion” for his actions. According to Dalton, the app released him from its control only when officers pulled him over.¹¹

Investigators were skeptical. Detective Bill Moorian said he believed Dalton was trying to manufacture an insanity defense and noted no history of mental illness or psychiatric medication. Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Jeff Williams said investigators suspected Dalton was attempting to establish that he had not been in his right mind as defined by law.¹²

The competency and insanity routes both closed. In March 2016, defense attorney Eusebio Solis requested a competency evaluation, and Dalton was sent to the state’s Center for Forensic Psychiatry in Saline. On April 22, 2016, Kalamazoo County District Judge Tiffany Ankley ruled him competent to stand trial.¹³ A separate forensic evaluation pursued as part of an insanity defense concluded Dalton “did not meet the legal requirements for an insanity defense,” and Solis announced in January 2019 that he would withdraw the notice before trial.¹⁴

Guilty Plea and Life Sentence

Jury selection was set to begin on January 8, 2019. One day before that, Dalton pleaded guilty to all 16 charges: six counts of murder, two counts of assault with intent to commit murder, and eight felony firearm counts. He entered the plea against his attorney’s advice, telling the court he had been “wanting this for a long time” and did not want to put his family through a trial. Prosecutor Jeff Getting called it the prosecution’s “best outcome.”³¹

On February 5, 2019, Circuit Judge Alexander Lipsey sentenced Dalton to six concurrent terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Victim impact statements ran about an hour. Laurie Smith spoke about losing her husband Richard and her son Tyler. Emily Lemmer shared memories of her father and brother. Christopher Nye addressed the loss of his wife Mary Lou and his sister Mary Jo. Tiana Carruthers spoke directly to Dalton and read a statement written by her young daughter.¹⁵

Dalton was processed through a reception center in Jackson, Michigan, and transferred to the Earnest C. Brooks Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison near Muskegon.¹⁶

The Survivors

Tiana Carruthers had metal rods implanted in her left arm and both femurs, and a bullet remains permanently lodged in her liver. She went from a hospital bed to a wheelchair to a walker, and eventually walked again, though she has described lasting limitations, including difficulty raising one arm and a permanent limp. She has spoken about ongoing trauma and regular therapy.¹⁷ In September 2016 she told reporters, “I don’t want to always be remembered as the girl who got shot by an Uber driver. I want to be remembered as a hero,” and later launched a youth enrichment program called “Shero with a Message.”¹⁸

Abigail Kopf’s survival was described by doctors as miraculous. The bullet struck the frontal lobe of her brain, causing her heart to stop and shattering her skull. As doctors were preparing for organ donation, she squeezed her mother’s hand. She underwent multiple surgeries, including the insertion and later removal of a protective plastic plate in her skull after it became infected, and she wore a Batman-themed motorcycle helmet for months while waiting for a replacement. As of early 2017 she had not returned to school and was dealing with low blood pressure, difficulty speaking, and memory problems.¹⁷

The Uber Lawsuit and Settlement

In September 2021, Matt Mellen filed a federal lawsuit against Uber and its technology subsidiary Raiser in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan. The suit alleged that Uber failed to deactivate Dalton despite the reported dangerous behavior during Mellen’s ride and that the company’s promised 24/7 incident response team was effectively inaccessible. Mellen said he suffered from survivor’s guilt and post-traumatic stress disorder.¹⁹

A judge dismissed Dalton as a defendant. Uber and Raiser reached a settlement with Mellen, and the case was dismissed with prejudice on March 10, 2023. The terms were not disclosed. Mellen had previously sought approximately $1.2 million, and both sides paid their own attorney fees.¹⁹

Uber’s Response on Screening and Safety

In the days after the shootings, Uber said it would not change its driver screening. Chief security officer Joe Sullivan argued that because Dalton had no criminal record, “no background check would have flagged this driver.” The company rejected calls to add fingerprint-based checks; spokesperson Rachel Whetstone said, “No system of background checks is ever going to be perfect, whether you’re using what we use or fingerprinting.”²⁰ Sullivan separately dismissed the idea of adding a U.S. panic button to the app, saying, “911 is the panic button for the United States.”²¹

The taxi and limousine industry pushed back. The National Limousine Association said the case “highlights how the current operating procedures of ride-hailing services fail to protect passengers, drivers and the public at large.” Advocacy groups pressed for government-conducted, fingerprint-based background checks for ride-hailing drivers, a practice already required in some jurisdictions, including New York City.²¹

1
WWMT. Uber Shooter Jason Dalton Sentenced to Life in Prison
2
Battle Creek Enquirer. Revisiting the Kalamazoo Shooting Timeline
3
ABC News. Uber Driver Jason Dalton Pleads Guilty to Charges in Deadly Shooting Spree
4
Detroit Free Press. Kalamazoo Uber Shootings: Here Are the Victims
5
WWMT. Kalamazoo Mass Shooting 10 Years Later
6
The Trace. Kalamazoo Shooting Jason Dalton Guns
7
Time. Kalamazoo Shooting Uber Passenger
8
The Guardian. Kalamazoo Shooting Spree: Uber Ignored Safety Complaint
9
CBS News. Kalamazoo Shooting Spree Suspect Jason Dalton, an Uber Driver
10
NBC News. Uber Says It Won’t Change Driver Background Checks
11
ABC News. Uber Driver Blames 2016 Shooting Rampage on Devil in App
12
Oxygen. Uber Shooter Jason Dalton Motive in Kalamazoo Rampage
13
MLive. Jason Dalton Competency
14
WWMT. Insanity Defense Will Not Be Used in Dalton Trial
15
WMUK. Kalamazoo Shooter Jason Dalton Sentenced to Life in Prison
16
WWMT. Dalton Transferred to Maximum Security Prison Near Muskegon
17
Detroit News. Kalamazoo Shooting
18
WWMT. Kalamazoo Mass Shooting Victims
19
MLive. Uber Settles Lawsuit From 2016 Kalamazoo Shooting Rampage
20
Time. Uber Background Checks Policy
21
CNBC. Uber: No Background Check Change After Michigan Murders