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Update, 5:15 p.m. Friday: Based on testimony from witnesses and evidence from Kalamazoo County's prosecutor, a district court judge found probable cause that Jason Dalton committed the crimes he's accused of.
Emily Monacelli of MLive reports on Judge Christopher Heinecke's ruling:
Dalton is charged with six counts of murder, two counts of assault with intent to commit murder and eight counts of felony firearm use in connection with the shooting rampage Feb. 20 at three locations in Kalamazoo County. He was found competent to stand trial at an April 22 hearing. . . .
Dalton, who worked as a driver for Uber, has told detectives he was possessed by the Uber app on his cellphone at the time of the shootings and that the app took over control of his vehicle, according to police reports obtained by the Kalamazoo Gazette under the Michigan Freedom of Information Act.
Key witnesses in the preliminary examination included Tiana Carruthers, who survived the shooting, and Alexis Cornish, who witnessed the shooting deaths of her boyfriend, Tyler Smith, and his father, Tyler Smith.
Original post, Friday morning:
A court hearing for Jason Dalton, the Uber driver accused of killing six People in Kalamazoo, was interrupted Friday morning when he said something that upset a survivor on the witness stand, WDIV reports.
Kalamazoo County deputies forcibly eject the 45-year-old defendant Friday morning as a shooting survivor broke down. (WDIV video image)
The 45-year-old defendant "had to be dragged out of court Friday morning after an apparent outburst during testimony," the Detroit station posts with a one-minute video of the incident (below).
Tiana Carruthers, a survivor of the shooting, was on the stand during Jason Dalton's preliminary hearing recalling moments from the Feb. 20 rampage. Dalton sat quiet during her testimony, but then made an apparent outburst which startled the woman on the stand. He had to be dragged out of the courtroom while she screamed.
According to the Associated Press, he raised his voice in court Friday and talked about people with "black bags."
Judge Christopher Haenicke called a recess and deputies removed Dalton from court. He was taken back to jail where he will watch the rest of the hearing. . . .
He was found competent to stand trial last month on five counts of open murder, two counts of assault with intent to murder and eight felony weapons charges. The judge will have decide if there's probable cause to send Dalton to trial on those charges.
