The man who admitted to killing six people over seven hours in and around Kalamazoo, Michigan has a, shall we say, novel explanation for his rampage. He claims that Uber’s mobile app turned him into a living puppet during that time.
On Monday, Kalamazoo police released the transcript from an interview they had with Jason Dalton on February 22, the day that he was arraigned for his rampage three days earlier. For those who don’t recall, Dalton was an Uber driver, and was picking up fares between shootings–meaning that dozens of other people were in danger and didn’t even know it.
WZZM in Grand Rapids obtained it via a Freedom of Information Act request. Dalton claimed that when he signed into the Uber mobile app, it “started making me feel like a puppet.” When he pressed a button, the system turned from black to red, and a devil’s head popped up. In this way, Dalton said the app would “literally take over” a user’s body.
Dalton claimed that while he himself is “not a killer,” he knows that he did kill people that night. Since he believes he was merely a puppet for the Uber app, he doesn’t remember “how much he had or had not done” while supposedly under its control. It was only when the system turned black again that Dalton got his “presence” again.
This puppet talk could open the door for an insanity defense at Dalton’s trial. It doesn’t complicate matters nearly as much as it would in other states, however. Michigan doesn’t have the death penalty, so Dalton will likely spend most, if not all, of his life in custody in any event. It does, however, raise serious questions about Uber’s vetting process. Uber doesn’t interview perspective drivers face to face. I could be very wrong, but signs of potential instability could have been caught at an interview, and would have certainly been flagged with a psychological test.
The documents also reveal one flag that almost certainly would have been uncovered with a more rigorous background check, and could also potentially be turned against Dalton at trial. A former colleague at Progressive Insurance told police that Dalton had a very bad temper and “did not seem to have any conflict resolution skills.” He frequently yelled at customers and slammed down phones. Whenever anyone complained, he got angry and defensive. Not exactly a person I’d want driving me around town.
While these disclosures may raise questions about Dalton’s mental state, they leave no question that Uber is broken. If a driver with apparent mental problems and a short fuse could clear the hurdles, it’s time to demand that Uber change its model if it wants to stay in existence.
