Gunman shoots self after 7 die in rampage

A man suspected of fatally shooting seven people, including a child, committed suicide late Thursday after a car chase and hostage standoff with police in the US Great Lakes city of Grand Rapids. The two remaining hostages were released safely after the gunman, Rodrick Shonte Dantzler, shot himself dead as police were speaking to him, Grand Rapids Police Chief Kevin Belk told reporters. Belk said officers were in the house and talking to Dantzler -- who had been threatening to shoot the hostages and had asked officers to shoot him -- before he suddenly committed suicide. "It does not make sense," Belk said shortly before midnight (0400 GMT Friday). "I don't think you can make sense out of something like this." Dantzler, 34, who was armed with a handgun, had earlier released another hostage, a 53-year-old woman, after demanding a sports drink and cigarettes, according to police. Dantzler had allegedly carried out a shooting rampage at two other homes in which he killed a 10-year-old child, five women and a man, according to police, who said he had a personal connection to the houses, without elaborating. Police then pursued him through the city on a high-speed chase to a house where he had no apparent personal connection. There he abandoned his SUV, fired three shots, which were answered by police, and then holed up inside. According to Belk, in addition to those killed, Dantzler also shot two other people, including a woman likely caught in crossfire and another person the suspect struck with his car. Neither of them suffered from life-threatening injuries. Family members said Dantzler had been released recently from prison, was very distraught, and may have been bipolar and off his medication, according to press reports. CBS television affiliate WWMT said the suspect had a criminal record. In 2010, he reportedly pleaded guilty to assault and battery and served a prison sentence for about a year. He also pleaded guilty 10 years earlier to assault with bodily harm less than murder and received a three to 10-year prison sentence. He received a year's probation in 1997 for malicious destruction of property, and was charged in 1992 as a juvenile for breaking and entering. Residents of normally quiet Grand Rapids in the US state of Michigan were shocked by the afternoon car chase, which at one point caused a wreck. Lee Roedema said he was stuck on a freeway as the suspect's white SUV came "flying past," trailed by police cars. "We knew from the radio that he might be coming this way, but we were already on the expressway and trapped," Roedema said. Other residents told of gunfire echoing through downtown and a shot-up police car with a shattered windshield being left on a street. "This is just insane," one woman said, asking not to be named. "We were in the house, and police went down our street, running with guns."