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Beloved Father & Son Murdered by Stranger | Murdered at First Sight

September 20, 2023 / 45:45

This episode discusses the tragic Kalamazoo shooting that occurred on February 20, 2016, involving victims Richard and Tyler Smith. Guests recount their personal experiences and memories of the day, including the aftermath of the shootings and the impact on their lives.

The episode features emotional recollections from family members, including a description of the chaotic moments leading up to the shooting and the devastating news received by loved ones. The narrative includes details about the victims’ lives, their relationships, and the community's response to the tragedy.

Key discussions highlight the actions of the shooter, Jason Dalton, an Uber driver, and the police response to the incident. The guests share their feelings of disbelief and grief as they recount the events of that day, emphasizing the randomness and senselessness of the violence.

Throughout the episode, the emotional toll on the families is evident, with reflections on loss, memories of the victims, and the ongoing struggle to find closure. The impact of the shooting on the community and the legal proceedings that followed are also addressed.

This episode serves as a poignant reminder of the human cost of violence and the lasting effects on families and communities.

TLDR

Family members recount the tragic Kalamazoo shooting that claimed Richard and Tyler Smith's lives, detailing their grief and the impact on the community.

Episode

45:45
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[Music] probably don't remember that that was right when we brought Tyler home from
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the hospital and you were enamored with him growing up in the Smith household was
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never a dull moment um we always had something going on um we were very busy busy family
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when I first saw Rich obviously I was attracted to him I was dancing and you know he asked me to dance and we had a
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good time that day this was at Kalamazoo Christian you and Tyler and Dad uh Christmas that
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was our last Christmas 2015 Christmas yeah throughout the day on February 20th 2016
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there are various 911 calls made to Kalamazoo dispatch two cars have been shot up there's three people in one car
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and one guy is not moving I was at home in the evening I received a few texts from friends that they
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thought something was going on in regards to someone shooting guns in the community
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he was an Uber driver not somebody that we would think would go about killing random people
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you could see him fiddling with something in his jacket pocket and he approached both Tyler and Richard and
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shot them when I heard my mom scream so I was like oh my gosh like maybe they got in an
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accident and eventually um somebody told me they're like no they were killed they didn't they didn't
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survive I still have those days where has this just been a really long bad dream or
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like do I really have to go on without them it's weird where your mind takes you
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more than a part of me died too that day and will never [Music] will never live again
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[Music] so yeah we just have a couple pictures up here of rich and Tyler this is Tyler's senior picture more of
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Tyler when he was growing up and Tyler had a Pontiac Solstice and so one of his pictures for his senior
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pictures was with his solstice and it was on the beach he wasn't supposed to be on the beach but he drove
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that car right up there and we were able to get the picture before we got in trouble
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he was a rebel like that rich and I met at a local bar I was 17 or 18. but every Thursday they had a
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ladies night and uh so people under 21 could get in and so we would go there to dance
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he says that we met through a friend of his when I was over at their house and he rode up on jet skis
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so there's a bit of a [Music] discrepancy as to how we met but we met that's the important part is that we met
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my dad was a huge breakfast person like every other meal could be like PB J but breakfast had to be like pancakes eggs
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sausage bacon you know potatoes the whole nine yards it couldn't just be it couldn't just be
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boring Rich was [Music] I'm gonna try not to cry um he was one of a kind um [Music]
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he supported me no matter what even um even if I was wrong [Music] my brother was in sports I was in sports
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so sometimes we had to split and go separate ways but for the most part you know I went to my brother's things and
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my brother went to mine and my mom and dad went to that so we we were always with each other
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Tyler and Emily's relationship was a typical relationship he was annoying at
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times to her even when they were at the annoying stage right they still were the best of friends
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[Music] this was my favorite picture because you're you look very alike you can
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definitely tell your brother and sister and your wide-eyed first car I blame it on rich
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because I said are you really going to buy him for his first car a sports car and we told them that if he got a ticket
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in it to just come give us the keys he had to behave himself he did get a ticket one time
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[Music] February 20th 2016 I woke up and I didn't have to work because it was
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Saturday my dad did though so he he made sure to let me know like hey I'm glad
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you're sleeping in I'm going to work at 5am and we were gonna go do our taxes
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after he had gotten out of work Emily met rich and I at the tax place and we got our taxes done Tyler wasn't
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working yet Tyler had decided that he was going to go pick up his girlfriend and he wanted
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to look for a truck for his business that he wanted to start I had gotten in a fight with my
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boyfriend at the time um and so I was talking to my dad about it before my mom got to the taxes
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every Saturday usually my daughter and I liked to country line dance and so there
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was a country line dancing bar not very far from here night really like nauseous like I was really
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nauseous I was really sick my stomach hurt and I didn't know why I was like I'm just gonna like take some
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meds and try to go to sleep and see if I can you know feel better in a couple hours
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my mom had gone out with my boyfriend at the time they went to Cowboy Up I was at the country line dancing bar
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Emily was sleeping in her apartment and I didn't know this but rich and Tyler
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were out with Alexis and Tyler was showing Rich the trucks that he had looked at that day
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but I didn't know that as far as I knew they were at home [Music] on February 20th I was actually at my
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house and was getting ready for bed when I got a call from one of our Detectives
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at the State Police you said that we had a quadruple homicide [Music] I was also informed that the shooting
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was likely related to two previous shootings that happened the same day in the Kalamazoo area
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I got dressed and immediately responded to the scene I remember somebody coming up to me at
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the country line dancing bar and telling me hey do you think that we should call
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Emily and they said well there's somebody going around Kalamazoo shooting people and I'm like what where
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it was on Stadium Drive which was a ways away from where her apartment was I'm like no she's third level apartment
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she's back in the woods like there's no way that anything's gonna don't upset
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her because she doesn't need to know we went about our night we ended up leaving early because I was ready to
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leave and her boyfriend was ready to leave so I went out got in the car he was driving
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um and I plugged in my phone charger and you know I have all these millions of texts from my twin sister
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and I had a missed call from Alexis's mom on my phone and I was reading my sister's texts and she
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was like where is Tyler there's some guy going around you know shooting people and we just were trying
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to get a hold of them so can you let me know once you hear from them that was basically her texts right but
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it was over and over and over again so I immediately texted Tyler and I said hey Alexis's mom called my phone had
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died so I'm just now getting it if this wakes you up can you just have Alexis
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call her mom because I'm sure she's worried about her whatever um and usually Tyler will respond back and
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say okay um to know that he got the text and he didn't [Music] when I first received the call it was
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not a call we would normally receive in this area with that amount of people that had been shot and killed
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he also said you're not going to believe this but we may have a Serial shooter
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because they had another homicide which was a double up at the Sealy dealership in Kalamazoo
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when I arrived at the scene I noticed several tents that were marking fired cartridge cases and different evidence
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located at the scene as well as two deceased individuals lying in the parking lot covered
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I got two right now on the ground I tried calling rich and of course none of them answered but I didn't think
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anything of it because I thought if they turned off their phones then I wouldn't
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hear it right when I didn't get either one of them then I told her boyfriend well maybe you
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better take me to my house so that I can just check and make sure that everything's okay
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I came in through the front door I noticed that the kitchen light was on which was out of the ordinary but I
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didn't really think much of it um but it wasn't until I walked down the hall to our bedroom
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and I opened up the door and Rich wasn't there [Music] it sounds like it was a slow thing but
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it wasn't it was really super quick just going through my mind and my heart sunk
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when he wasn't in his bed because I knew something had happened [Music] thank you
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Let's see we have two uh down I have one female in a vehicle a Range Rover it appeared to be a father and son based
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on the information that we had and the son's girlfriend was also still at the
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scene and she was being interviewed and had told us that she had witnessed the entire murder
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I don't know where he came from over here in total we had 16 fired cartridge
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cases and one of the bodies was hit nine times and the other was hit seven times
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at that point Emily's boyfriend had come in the front door and I had run back out
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into the kitchen and I said it's them it's them we have to go we have to go to
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Stadium Drive [Music] and he's like what are you talking about and so I just started yelling at him and
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telling him to go get in the car and then I called 9-1-1 and I told them who I was and I was
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asking what hospital rich and Tyler were at [Music] Emily's boyfriend said let's go
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get Emily or let's go we should go check on Emily and so I'm like okay and so I gave the
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9-1-1 operator the address of her apartment the whole ride there I was trying to get
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her to tell me and I said the news said that the sister was in the back seat I said it wasn't I said if this is Tyler
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and Rich it wasn't the sister it was Tyler's girlfriend Alexis and I said is
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Alexis okay and the 911 operator said yes and I heard my mom scream from out in my
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parking lot and I looked at the time and it was like three o'clock in the morning
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and I was like what in the world is going on she came downstairs and she walked out
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and I was at the back of the car and and I just looked at him and I just kept saying they're gone they're gone Daddy
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and Tyler they've been shot they're gone throughout the day on February 20th 2016
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there are various 911 calls made at Kalamazoo dispatch it started with the shooting over at The Meadows Apartments
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and then that segued into a second shooting up at the Sealy right of Richard and Tyler Smith
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emergency okay and then the last shooting was the culmination of of the other two which
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took place at the Cracker Barrel located on 9th Street in which five individuals
00:17:01
were shot hello 911 are you okay ma'am Cleveland shot where were you shot I think your heart okay we've got help on
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the way my instincts were because of the related crimes that we had that we are going to have to move as
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quick as we can on this because if these three crimes are related this person is
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not going to stop [Music] I just thought it was a nightmare and I wasn't really even hearing the words
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that they were saying all I kept saying is I you know whatever they said I don't even know what they
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said but I remember that I said what do we do now I dropped to my knees right in front of
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the garage and I just yelled I yelled at God and I just said I don't know what
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you're doing like why why rich and Tyler why me why us [Music] I was at home in the evening I received
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a few texts from friends that they thought something was going on in regards to someone shooting guns in the community
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and then I received an alert from our law enforcement Folks at Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety just sort of
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alerting me that some issue an incident was happening they weren't sure what but
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it was happening throughout the area and that there was a Manhunt on for the Killer
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the feeling that was going through my head at the time when I saw the bodies was that we had a father and son that
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had been murdered and it looked as if from the placement of how they were laying that the father was attempting to
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protect his son either when they fell before they fell or after they had been hit by gunfire
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it was pretty clear from the way that the bodies were lying that Richard was trying to protect Tyler in his last
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moments he must have seen the man with a gun and at least tried his best to intervene and save his son which was not
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possible and for the First Responders to come there and to have seen the scene like this
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you can just imagine that while they see traumatic things all the time how difficult this scene must have been for
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them [Music] I really was a little fearful of what was going on not knowing where this
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individual would end up next not knowing whom they would be near I certainly made
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a quick call to my family making sure that they were all home and safe it was really scary
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when I heard that Tyler's girlfriend was at the scene hiding in their vehicle
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and saw what had occurred I I just felt horrible for her I knew she was a young girl and to see
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something like that is so traumatic for anyone and for her to maintain that composure
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in that situation after seeing what she did and not screaming and then having the wherewithal to call 9-1-1 to get the
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information was amazing [Music] thank you I didn't really like have an emotion
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like I don't remember having like feelings I just felt numb foreign I smoked cigarettes at the time so I
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just went out on my deck and just probably smoked an entire pack of cigarettes because that's what I did
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um and my mom called my aunt and told her what had happened um and then the police officer who told me
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ended up asking me if I could tell him where my dad's mom lived so that they
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could go tell her what was going on and I got angry at them which I feel bad about now
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so I said I'll tell her so they finally like all left and one officer came back and knocked on
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my door and like I opened it and he just gave me a hug I remember that one because I mean it probably traumatized
00:22:02
them that was like the worst thing Kalamazoo probably had ever seen [Music] I'd never experienced anything like this
00:22:15
I had heard of shootings and was alerted to shootings as mayor or not a super dangerous town
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this incident was so widespread I was trying to understand what is going on why is this happening we've had so
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many mass shootings in our country I thought this one was different because it was happening in different places
00:22:40
I can't remember when I found out that there were other victims I can't remember
00:22:46
if I found out that night the detectives might have told us while we were at Emily's apartment but I honestly don't
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remember we'll never know what made him go to different scenes what made him choose
00:23:01
rich and Tyler I don't even know like it's all a blur it still is Oliver
00:23:14
[Music] what we have here is the video surveillance of the Kia dealership on February 20th 2016.
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and you can see right here is the Smiths pulling in in their vehicle to go look at the cars on a lot
00:23:47
after that we see a second vehicle Drive In it goes by The Smith's car that's parked
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in the lot with the lights on starts walking toward Richard and Tyler Smith then stops for a minute to check
00:24:07
something in his right pocket which I believe is the gun the surveillance videotape from the car
00:24:14
dealership was invaluable to police they were able to get some information about
00:24:18
the build and the look of the person who had done this the type of car he was driving and even some information about
00:24:25
his tags I was clearly indication that this was a stranger who had committed the murders
00:24:34
entirely random shooting initially we had a lead on a potential dark color vehicle that was gleaned
00:24:49
through surveillance footage at both Seeley Wright the car dealership as well as the Cracker Barrel
00:24:57
we also had two witnesses that saw a vehicle leaving the Cracker Barrel at a high rate of speed
00:25:03
after our victims had been shot in the parking lot I'm at the um Kalamazoo Cracker Barrel
00:25:13
on those big gunshots in a car there's gunshots in a car yes two cars have been shot up there's three
00:25:22
people in one car and one guy is not moving which to the Apple that fired the gun it's a blue HHR dark blue and it
00:25:33
drove off right as we pulled up we had a vehicle description which was a Chevrolet HHR dark colored vehicle
00:25:42
so with all of that information put together it was at that point that he became the primary suspect
00:25:51
he's running back to his vehicle which is the HHR he gets into the driver's side
00:26:03
turns on a light pulls out and then continues out of the frame [Music] we know the gunman killed some people
00:26:17
randomly at Cracker Barrel which was in the middle of nowhere so that indicates that this this perpetrator is mobile
00:26:24
he's traveling around to random places and that must have made it even more terrifying for the citizens of Kalamazoo
00:26:30
because nowhere is safe I found out that the police had a suspect from the police officer we
00:26:40
didn't know anything other than that we knew he was a man we didn't know how old
00:26:44
he was we didn't know anything about him so we found out um on the news who he was
00:26:53
really important for the police to be able to catch a spree killer because by their very nature they're random so they
00:27:00
could go on indefinitely until the perpetrator was caught Jason Dalton became the suspect when
00:27:14
when he was pulled over in Kalamazoo at 12 40 AM and at that point when he was pulled
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over he was in possession of a bullet resistant vest which he was wearing as well as a nine millimeter firearm
00:27:32
he was pulled over and it was actually a traffic stop that was I don't want to say routine but not what
00:27:42
you'd expect come over here on your side here what I was expecting to happen when this
00:27:53
individual got pulled over is he or she was going to shoot at police and or maybe kill himself which is
00:28:03
common in these types of situations but that is not what happened at 41 minutes when I was first notified about the
00:28:20
cases approximately about 7 A.M I responded to the fifth district headquarters office where I made contact
00:28:29
with all the investigators that they were pretty tired they'd been working all night I spoke with Lieutenant
00:28:34
Christensen they gave me a quick briefing advice that Mr Dalton the suspect was uh saying that he was having
00:28:43
issues with the Uber app that had caused him to do this situation do the shooting as I
00:28:50
was leaving to go speak to him our phone tech was working on Mr Dalton's cell
00:28:57
phone so I asked to look at his pictures to see what was important to him and he had on
00:29:02
he had very few pictures of his family and he had a lot of pictures of a black German Shepherd as I was a former dog
00:29:10
handler had worked a German Shepherd myself it gave me a conversation piece to be able
00:29:16
to talk to him Dalton's state of mind that day was odd to say the least the fact that he had
00:29:24
killed the people that he did and was still picking up fares in between these killings is odd and strange
00:29:33
however could those individuals Within those Vehicles when he's picking up a
00:29:38
fair been a victim they could have been but it didn't fit the method of operation or
00:29:46
his Mo that he was using that day in a case like this where there's an Uber driver and he is picking up random
00:29:55
people a lot of times you think well why wouldn't you choose then to be his victims knowing the app saw exactly
00:30:02
where he would go and pick people up and drop them off so if he killed them he thought he would get caught too quickly
00:30:09
and he wanted to be able to commit more murders that way when I made contact with Mr Dalton for
00:30:16
the first time he was seated in a small room at the Kalamazoo County Jail he initially thought that I was his
00:30:22
attorney and I advised him I was not and I told him my name and I told him I rank
00:30:27
with the state police he initially stated that he didn't want to speak with me I asked him if he liked
00:30:34
soda and he advised that he did so I I asked him if he wanted a Coke he said he would
00:30:40
like to have a Coke so I gave him one of their coca-colas that I had purchased on the way to the
00:30:46
interview and Mr Dalton and I sat and just talked about just general things and we had to drink a Coca-Cola together
00:30:55
we did develop information that Dalton visited gun shops prior to these shootings
00:31:01
we also know that Dalton had weapons in the past guns he was an avid shooter the fact that he was armed and how he
00:31:14
switched Vehicles how he switched guns after it didn't work definitely tells me
00:31:19
that these acts were premeditated by him and he just pulled right over right over
00:31:24
the other gun on them so when I spoke to him about his German Shepherd he was very open
00:31:42
right after the the whole dog conversation we had known that Dalton liked guns he
00:31:50
actually told me that he had used a German gun during this incident this was the first time a crime
00:32:00
like this happened in the City of Kalamazoo it actually brought a lot of different people I
00:32:09
think together in a good way after after these tragic incidents happen [Music] our community rallied around us so much
00:32:20
and like you know the amount of vigils and you know support and love that we were given from
00:32:26
the community was just endless um but it was almost overwhelming [Music] thank you
00:32:44
[Music] foreign [Music] Jason Dalton killed six people [Music] I sat and spoke to him for several hours
00:33:09
for the why it was not ever asked [Music] he was a little chubby old man he had to
00:33:21
hide behind a car and sneak up on him and take him by surprise [Music] otherwise
00:33:30
he never would have gotten [Music] away with anything they would have stopped right there right there at Sealy
00:33:40
it would have stopped had they known he was there and had they known what he was
00:33:45
planning to do I only imagine how shocking it must have been not just to see a man who appears
00:33:55
someone out of nowhere on this car lot after hours but then the next thing they see is that he has a Gun there's
00:34:02
absolutely nothing good that's going to come next Jason Dalton was very calm he was very
00:34:08
Collective he was very proper he knew that there was nothing that he could do to turn this around or to change what
00:34:16
had happened he actually referred to himself as a monster and he knew that there was nothing that he
00:34:23
could say or do to make anything right about this situation to this day I regularly think about that
00:34:31
situation and the entire sequence of events that day and what a tragedy is and was
00:34:42
sorry I'm getting a little emotional here sorry I I felt he living here and growing up here that
00:34:55
we were different doesn't mean that we were perfect and that we didn't have
00:35:00
things that we shouldn't have had happen in this community whether it's around
00:35:04
guns or violence but we had never seen anything at this level before there were ceremonies at churches there
00:35:14
were gatherings in our Parks Candlelight vigils everyone trying to make sense of a senseless act you just can't make
00:35:22
sense of any of this you just can't the day that we were supposed to go to trial he pled guilty to everything but
00:35:40
he waited of course for however many years that was which again cowardly maybe he thought he was
00:35:47
going to get off on being insane oh he's insane all right but it's nothing that he can hide behind
00:35:57
um he knew full while what he was doing and just didn't want to sit through and hear
00:36:06
it because he knew what was what a trial was going to be and that every little detail was going
00:36:14
to come out and he didn't want to tell why he wanted the focus to be on him but
00:36:19
he didn't want that kind of attention Kalamazoo County state of Michigan defendant did murder Tyler Smith
00:36:27
guilty of this offense it is a felony punishable by it for life in prison you understand the charges being made
00:36:34
against you and then maximum sentences that I just stated right from the beginning of the
00:36:45
arraignment through the court process he was not remorseful he was acting very strange she would have outbursts during
00:36:54
the courtroom and would say things that didn't make sense his behavior in the
00:37:01
courtroom was bizarre which ultimately we did not go to trial on this and he ended up pleading two his charges
00:37:11
we all got called and said that he was pleading guilty and The Plea was happening at like 10 o'clock when we
00:37:19
weren't even supposed to be there until like noon we got there and he pled guilty to everything that he did and I
00:37:26
mean he just he did the bare minimum he never said anything more than just answering the judge's questions he said
00:37:33
yes they read off the names of every person and hearing my brother and my dad's name red off
00:37:42
with murder and then him saying yes was very very very hard to hear because there was no emotion
00:37:53
it was just like he was answering uh do you want pizza for dinner I've heard a lot of Victim Impact
00:38:01
statements and what was different about this impact statement was just the sheer
00:38:06
amount of victims families the amount of people that were affected that was different but obviously the
00:38:18
impact statements themselves were tragic it's a horrible situation and I wouldn't have expected them to be
00:38:26
anything anything but when I was doing the victim impact statement I might have been looking at
00:38:35
the judge because the judge was like up in front of me and we were we were told that we had to direct the victim impact
00:38:42
statement to the judge other people tried to direct things at him and they were changed because we weren't allowed
00:38:49
to Jason Dalton was sentenced to life in prison it was inappropriate sentencing for his actions
00:38:59
I have never met someone who has no emotion I personally believe that he's a
00:39:07
psychopath you can see when someone has empathy or has sorrow or feels like they've
00:39:15
done the worst thing in the world like you could you could tell that in a person
00:39:20
and he sat there like he was being accused of cheating on a test and he didn't care
00:39:33
I don't wish him well I don't wish him any sort of Happiness whatsoever I'm glad that he is in prison
00:39:42
for the rest of his life no sentence no nothing will ever be enough for me my only hope is that one day he feels a
00:39:52
shred of the pain inside that I deal with on a regular basis it just seems like nothing will ever be enough nothing
00:40:02
will ever be able to take away what happened to me or to them or to anyone that he ruined
00:40:09
their lives and it just makes it worse that he doesn't even care I think he killed six people that day
00:40:18
because for whatever reason felt that that's what he had to do and because of the randomness of it and
00:40:28
how he went about it and the recklessness of it it seemed as though in his mind he said I have to do this
00:40:36
over a couple of weeks from interviews and background that we did he had been becoming paranoid and I
00:40:45
believe that played a part in it as well I want him to suffer and that's not
00:40:50
Christian of me I should not say that but that's truly how I feel he has destroyed
00:41:01
my life and my family life and took my daughter's daddy away she walked down the aisle carrying his
00:41:11
urn I have one voicemail left he was calling me to let me know that he was going to
00:41:16
be late it was like I can't be there I love you kid and so I put that in the
00:41:22
beginning of the video and I sat in the middle of the Dance Floor by myself while the video played
00:41:30
and the pictures and the song and um bawled my eyes out [Music] I remember them and every single thing I
00:41:40
do I remember them I don't walk down the side of the road or walk out my door or
00:41:47
drive down the road without having a thought about them or a memory about them or
00:41:53
I wonder what they're doing in heaven or you know like every single day I wake up
00:41:58
and and something somewhere and it's not very hard reminds me of them um I just hope
00:42:09
that I'm making them proud and that eventually I'll be able to see them again
00:42:20
[Music] I feel horrible about what happened that day it was a very tragic day for a lot
00:42:33
of innocent people that did absolutely nothing wrong um they just had the unfortunate
00:42:40
circumstances of coming across Jason Dalton as far as Jason Dalton I don't understand why he would have done what
00:42:49
he did I feel that Justice was done in this case from a legal standpoint with regard to
00:43:00
the sense that was handed down I believe this was a first degree murder which is
00:43:05
the most serious crime you can commit in the state of Michigan however the families are still suffering with loss
00:43:14
all of them are and certain victims trauma from the event so in that regard it's still difficult
00:43:26
for the families every single day that they wake up [Music] so Justice was done legally
00:43:36
but they're still Injustice in the acts that he committed and how he affected these families
00:43:45
I've written him hundreds of letters that I've never sent because I don't have any words for him because
00:43:56
nothing I say will ever change anything that happened as much as my mom and I miss them and
00:44:07
wish that we were also a family my mom and I have each other and Tyler and Dad have each other I guess it gives me
00:44:14
comfort knowing that they aren't alone [Music] I really want to know why and
00:44:24
I really want to just tell them that there are no words to describe what this has done to
00:44:39
me and my daughter and my family there are no words to describe [Music] what type of
00:44:56
[Music] troubled evil Soul could do something like this [Music] [Music]

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 95
    Most heartbreaking
  • 90
    Most emotional
  • 90
    Most intense
  • 85
    Most shocking

Episode Highlights

  • A Family's Last Christmas
    The Smith family's last Christmas together in 2015 is remembered fondly.
    “That was our last Christmas 2015 Christmas.”
    @ 01m 07s
    September 20, 2023
  • The Day of the Tragedy
    February 20th, 2016, marked a devastating day for the Smith family.
    “There are various 911 calls made to Kalamazoo dispatch.”
    @ 01m 16s
    September 20, 2023
  • The Shocking Discovery
    A detective informs a family member about a quadruple homicide.
    “We had a quadruple homicide.”
    @ 08m 40s
    September 20, 2023
  • Community's Response to Tragedy
    The Kalamazoo community rallied together in support after the tragic events, holding vigils and gatherings.
    “The amount of support and love that we were given from the community was just endless.”
    @ 32m 26s
    September 20, 2023
  • Jason Dalton's Calmness During Court
    Despite his heinous actions, Dalton remained calm and collected in court, showing no remorse.
    “He actually referred to himself as a monster.”
    @ 34m 18s
    September 20, 2023
  • Dalton's Guilty Plea
    Dalton pled guilty to all charges, displaying a lack of emotion throughout the process.
    “Hearing my brother and my dad's name read off with murder was very hard to hear.”
    @ 37m 39s
    September 20, 2023
  • Impact of the Murders
    The sheer number of victims and families affected by Dalton's actions was unprecedented.
    “The amount of people that were affected was different but obviously tragic.”
    @ 38m 12s
    September 20, 2023
  • Sentencing and Reflection
    Dalton was sentenced to life in prison, but the families continue to suffer from their loss.
    “Justice was done legally, but there's still injustice in the acts he committed.”
    @ 43m 36s
    September 20, 2023

Episode Quotes

  • More than a part of me died too that day.
    Beloved Father & Son Murdered by Stranger | Murdered at First Sight
  • I just thought it was a nightmare.
    Beloved Father & Son Murdered by Stranger | Murdered at First Sight
  • Why rich and Tyler? Why me? Why us?
    Beloved Father & Son Murdered by Stranger | Murdered at First Sight
  • He actually referred to himself as a monster.
    Beloved Father & Son Murdered by Stranger | Murdered at First Sight
  • I don’t wish him any sort of happiness whatsoever.
    Beloved Father & Son Murdered by Stranger | Murdered at First Sight
  • Nothing will ever be enough for me.
    Beloved Father & Son Murdered by Stranger | Murdered at First Sight

Key Moments

  • Family Bonding05:26
  • Quadruple Homicide08:40
  • Nightmare17:46
  • Picking Up Fares29:30
  • Community Vigil32:20
  • Plea Deal37:11
  • Life Sentence38:53
  • Ongoing Suffering43:14

Tension Over Time

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown