Gunman kills seven before committing suicide in the US

A man believed to have shot dead seven people in Michigan killed himself today during a stand-off with police.

Two hostages he was holding were safe, Grand Rapids police chief Kevin Belk said.

Mr Belk said 34-year-old Rodrick Dantzler shot himself inside a Grand Rapids home where he had been holding the hostages.

Dantzler had earlier released a 53-year-old woman. Two other hostages had remained in the home.

A manhunt for Dantzler began after four people were found dead in one Grand Rapids home and three were found in another. Mr Belk said the dead included two children.

The frantic search included a high-speed chase through central Grand Rapids during which Mr Belk says the suspect shot two other people. They did not suffer life-threatening injuries.

The names of the gunman's victims were not immediately released.

“We believe there were prior relationships with at least one person at each location, so we think there were some difficulties there,” Mr Belk said.

Records show Dantzler was released from state prison in 2005 after serving time for assault less than murder. A spokesman for the prison system said he had not been under state supervision since then.

At one point during the police chase, the suspect crossed a wide grassy central reservation on the interstate and drove the wrong way down the highway while more than a dozen police cars pursued him.

Mr Belk said he crashed the vehicle while driving down an embankment into a wooded area of the highway, which remained closed hours later.

Two other people were shot when the suspect fired at police during the chase. One man was wounded in what Mr Belk described as a “road rage” attack after the suspect fired through the rear window of the vehicle. A woman was hit in the arm in a separate shooting.

Carrie Colacchio said she was driving in the area when “I looked in my rear-view mirror and see this big white SUV coming up behind me”.

“The only way to get out of it was to push the gas pedal,” she said. But she could not turn off the road, slow down or go any other way and reached about 85mph.

“I almost got smacked,” she said. “I had to go up on the kerb.”

Sandra Powney, who lives opposite one of the homes where the shootings happened, said she had seen Dantzler at the ranch house, where a couple has lived for more than 20 years with two adult daughters.

Ms Powney said she had been at home all day and did not realise anyone had been killed until police arrived at the cul-de-sac.

“For a while we couldn’t come outside,” she said. “They didn’t know if there was someone still inside the house.”

Neighbours said police congregated at Dantzler’s home a few miles away after the shootings.

Sonia Bergers said Dantzler lived with a woman she assumed was his wife and their daughter, a girl who appeared to be about 10.

Mary Lahuis and her husband had just returned home after having coffee at a nearby fast-food restaurant when police began running down their street with guns, yelling at people to get in their homes.

Of Dantzler, she said: “You would see him going up and down the street. And you’d hear him going up and down the street.”

Outside the two-storey, wood-sided home where the three people were killed, neighbours stood in groups, quietly talking as investigators scoured the house.

As officers left, people disappeared indoors and a single police car remained.

The only indication of anything unusual was three bouquets of flowers on the porch steps.