Local principal recalls suspected Kalamazoo shooter
HANCOCK COUNTY, Ind. (WISH) — The story of the Kalamazoo shooting rampage is hitting closer and closer to home. Suspected shooter Jason Dalton lived in Hancock County up until his sophomore year of high school.
His family moved to Michigan after his sophomore year.
Dalton was known as an athlete, a decent student and a “red-blooded country boy,” according to school principal David Pfaff.
Pfaff recalls hearing Dalton’s name on the news linking his former student to the crime.
“They talked about a mass shooting in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and that the individual that they had in custody was Jason Dalton. And that immediately kind of froze me,” Pfaff said. “He was a very athletic young man, he was never in any kind of trouble here at all, he was very respectful.
Pfaff was Dalton’s coach. The alleged killer participated in football, wrestling and track in high school until his family moved away.
“It was an awful, awful feeling to know that someone who you had once worked with and had been relatively close to was capable of something like that,” Pfaff said. “It was an awful feeling.”
Dalton was also an Uber driver, and police say he took fares in between the shootings.
His last rider, who lives in Indianapolis, also couldn’t believe the news of Dalton’s arrest.
He described his Uber encounter with Dalton.
“I said, ‘You’re not the shooter, are you?’ And he said, ‘No.’ And I said, ‘Are you sure?’ And he said, ‘No, I’m just tired; I’ve been driving for seven hours,” said the man who only wanted to be identified as Derek.
Derek, his wife and in-laws were visiting Kalamazoo over the weekend.
Dalton was arrested just minutes after dropping them off at a hotel.
“Who knows what transpired in his life, in his mind but I think it’s an illustration that sometimes things do go wrong with people and the demons that they fight,” Pfaff said.
Police haven’t released Dalton’s motive, they also haven’t said why or how he chose his victims.
