This is 34-year-old Roderick Beltzer, who clearly woke up with a death wish yesterday. Unfortunately, he felt it necessary to make that a whole bunch of other people’s problem.
A pleasant Thursday afternoon turned deadly in Grand Rapids when a gunman killed seven people before fleeing through the city, taking three people hostage in a home for hours, then fatally shooting himself.
Around 11 p.m., the hostages were free after the suspect, 34-year-old Rodrick Shonte Dantzler, shot himself in the head, Police Chief Kevin Belk said.
Belk said officers were in the house, talking to Dantzler, who had been threatening to shoot the two hostages who remained and had asked officers to shoot him — before suddenly committing suicide.
“It does not make sense,” Belk said shortly before midnight. “I don’t think you can make sense out of something like this.”
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