Police stand-off with gunman after horrific shooting left seven dead including ten-year-old girl... and he has hostagesng-year-old-girl-shot-dead-gunman.
Police are in a dramatic stand off with a man suspected of shooting dead seven people, including a ten-year-old girl.
Rodrick Dantzler, 34, is suspected of shooting five women, one man and the child in two separate rampages in Grand Rapids, Michigan, this afternoon.
He is currently holed up in an apartment near Soft Water Lake after escaping on foot following a high speed car chase with police.
Dantzler, who has been in constant communication with police negotiators, has told them he wants to kill himself, according to the Grand Rapids Press.
He has also allegedly been seen by police snorting a substance inside the home.
Police have set up a perimeter and are negotiating with him, Grand Rapids police spokesman Sergeant Jon Wu said.
Dantzler released a female hostage but is still holding a male hostage according to the paper.
He had threatened to kill one of them unless he got Gatorade and cigarettes, according to police.
Dantzler lived at the location where three of the victims - two women and the young girl - were found dead, according to the Grand Rapids Press.
Dantzler had been involved with one of the women gunned down.
A friend also informed the paper the killings stemmed from 'domestic issues.'
Another three women and a man were found dead at another address nearby.
Family members said Dantzler had been recently released from prison and was very distraught.
He may also be bipolar and off his medication, according to local media reports.
Mayor George Heartwell said Grand Rapids police, Kent County sheriff and Michigan state police were working on the case, including the department's hostage negotiators.
'This is so uncharacteristic of Grand Rapids. We are all stunned about it,' Heartwell said in a telephone interview.
Before he broke into the apartment Dantzler sparked a massive police hunt with police helicopters, state police and sheriff's deputies.
He then led police in a high speed car chase down U.S. 131 before he moved on to I-96 - often driving the wrong way down the highway.
Rodrick Dantzler, 34, is suspected of shooting five women, one man and the child in two separate rampages in Grand Rapids, Michigan, this afternoon.
He is currently holed up in an apartment near Soft Water Lake after escaping on foot following a high speed car chase with police.
Dantzler, who has been in constant communication with police negotiators, has told them he wants to kill himself, according to the Grand Rapids Press.
He has also allegedly been seen by police snorting a substance inside the home.
Police have set up a perimeter and are negotiating with him, Grand Rapids police spokesman Sergeant Jon Wu said.
Dantzler released a female hostage but is still holding a male hostage according to the paper.
He had threatened to kill one of them unless he got Gatorade and cigarettes, according to police.
Dantzler lived at the location where three of the victims - two women and the young girl - were found dead, according to the Grand Rapids Press.
Dantzler had been involved with one of the women gunned down.
A friend also informed the paper the killings stemmed from 'domestic issues.'
Another three women and a man were found dead at another address nearby.
Family members said Dantzler had been recently released from prison and was very distraught.
He may also be bipolar and off his medication, according to local media reports.
Mayor George Heartwell said Grand Rapids police, Kent County sheriff and Michigan state police were working on the case, including the department's hostage negotiators.
'This is so uncharacteristic of Grand Rapids. We are all stunned about it,' Heartwell said in a telephone interview.
Before he broke into the apartment Dantzler sparked a massive police hunt with police helicopters, state police and sheriff's deputies.
He then led police in a high speed car chase down U.S. 131 before he moved on to I-96 - often driving the wrong way down the highway.
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