Uber Says Suspected Michigan Gunman Was Driver For Service

KALAMAZOO, Mich. (AP) — Uber says the man suspected of going on a western Michigan shooting rampage that left six people dead was one of its drivers.

But spokeswoman Nairi Hourdajian wouldn’t say Sunday whether 45-year-old Jason Dalton was driving for the ride-sharing service Saturday night when the shootings occurred outside an apartment complex, car dealership and restaurant in and around Kalamazoo.

Uber Chief Security Officer Joe Sullivan says in a statement that the company is “horrified and heartbroken” and that Uber has offered assistance in the investigation.

Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeff Getting says authorities are investigating a Facebook post saying the suspect was an Uber driver driving erratically around the time of the shootings. He declined to elaborate.

Uber’s firearms policy prohibits both drivers and passengers from carrying firearms in an Uber vehicle.

Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  1. Avatar for pshah pshah says:

    Uber’s firearms policy prohibits both drivers and passengers from carrying firearms in an Uber vehicle.

    It’s very interesting to me that private companies almost invariably choose to ban guns from their premises. If the NRA’s argument was correct, wouldn’t they choose the opposite?

    In the real world, there are actual consequences to guns being carried in public, carried brightly as if they were no more dangerous than a smartphone.

    Unfortunately, all we get from the NRA are glib one-liners parroted endlessly by their minions.

  2. Avatar for 1gg 1gg says:

    I guess someone was unhappy about his tip.

  3. So the Martin Scorsese sequel to the story of Travis Bickle is called Uber Driver.

  4. I’m not exactly sure how Uber can ban a driver from carrying a gun in their own vehicle. Beyond having it as a meaningless policy in their terms of service, which would seem to be more of a legalistic CYA. The drivers are private contractors in their own privately owned vehicle.

    I suppose if one were to pull a gun on a passenger, Uber could decide to no longer allow them to drive for the service.

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