YouTube | MLive

Details Emerge As Uber Driver Admits To Six-Person Murder Spree Between Fares

For most of us, a violent crime is shocking enough on its own. The idea that someone can cross every threshold of decency and attack another person to the point where they lose their life never stops being difficult to accept.

Yet if nothing else, in many cases we at least have some understanding as to what drove a murderer to do what they did.

And so, cases where even the reason for the act is a mystery become all the more chilling. Although the case we're examining today has been going on for three years, we're no closer to understanding why it happened.

Back in 2016, 48-year-old Jason Dalton was arrested after he shot eight people in a rampage that lasted several hours.

YouTube | WOOD TV8

According to USA Today, he was moonlighting as an Uber Driver at the time and chose random targets at three different locations between rides.

He had no criminal record before this and had passed Uber's background check.

He started firing at an apartment complex parking lot, where he shot a woman four times.

YouTube | WOOD TV8

Although she survived the encounter, the same could not be said for a father and son that police said he murdered at a Kia dealership four hours later.

Soon after these fatal shots, he would open fire on four women and a 14-year-old girl outside of a Cracker Barrel restaurant.

YouTube | MLive

Sadly, the four women would not survive, but despite being shot in the head, the girl managed to hold onto life.

After his arrest, Dalton apparently told police that a "devil figure" in the Uber app was controlling him on the day of his killing spree.

Reddit | Amc724

The Guardian reported that despite this, Dalton was considered mentally competent to stand trial and his lawyer stopped pursuing an insanity defense last week.

However, right before the jury selection process for his trial was about to begin, Dalton showed how unpredictable he is yet again.

YouTube | Movieclips

Out of nowhere, Dalton admitted to both the murders and the attempted murders he committed on that fateful night.

His lawyer objected because this put Dalton at risk of a mandatory sentence of life without parole, but he said he had wanted to plead guilty for "quite a while."

Although Dalton still has yet to explain why he shot his victims, he did provide a reason why he suddenly admitted to his crimes.

YouTube | MLive

As his attorney, Eusebio Solis, told the judge, “There are personal reasons for him. He does not want to put his family through that, or the victims’ families, through the trial. It’s his decision.”

h/t: The Guardian