GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., July 8 (UPI) -- Police in Grand Rapids, Mich., said a suspect in the killing of seven people shot and killed himself after a standoff during which he held hostages.
Rodrick Dantzler was being sought in two shooting incidents in Grand Rapids Thursday -- one in which two women and a 10-year-old girl were killed in a Plainfield Avenue home, and another in which three adults and one child were killed in a Brynell Court home. He called police around 7:30 p.m. EDT Thursday and told them he had taken hostages in an apartment, the Grand Rapids Press reported.
Police said at about 11:30 p.m. Dantzler had shot himself, and confirmed a short time later he was dead.
None of Dantzler's three hostages -- a 70-year-old man who lived at the apartment, and two women -- was injured, the newspaper said.
Dantzler released one hostage, identified as a 53-year-old woman, at 9:18 p.m.
Witnesses said Dantzler exchanged gunfire with police during the standoff but Grand Rapids Police Chief Kevin Belk told reporters at a news conference there was no indication anyone being held in the house was harmed, ABC News reported. However, a woman sustained non-life threatening injuries when she was caught in crossfire, the report said.
The killings apparently resulted from a domestic dispute, the Grand Rapids Press reported. One of the women killed at the Plainfield Avenue address was involved with Dantzler, ABC reported.
One of the suspect's relatives said he was recently released from prison and had been "very distraught," WOOD-TV, Grand Rapids, said.
