Ride-Share From Hell: A Shocking True Crime Story

by Rod Kackley

February 20, 2016 — Kalamazoo, Michigan.
An ordinary Uber shift turned into a citywide nightmare.

Jason Dalton seemed like any other driver on the road. But as he ferried passengers across Kalamazoo, Dalton became convinced that something had taken over his iPhone — a flashing app icon that shifted from red to black, a digital signal he believed was commanding him to kill. Minutes later, he began executing strangers at random, turning the city into a hunting ground and leaving police scrambling to understand the pattern behind the chaos.

By the end of the night, eight people had been shot. Six were dead. And Dalton insisted he was only following orders from a hijacked smartphone interface he claimed he could not resist.

Yet even in the middle of terror, there were moments of astonishing a woman shielding children with her own body, families hiding behind cars and gas pumps, and a teenage girl who stunned doctors by showing signs of life just as they prepared to remove her from life support.

Ride-Share From Hell is a gripping, expanded account of a real mass shooting shaped by digital delusion, psychological collapse, and the chilling intersection of technology and violence. A true crime story that unfolds with the relentless tension of a technothriller — and the resilience of a community that refused to break.

Genres: Nonfiction

83 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 19, 2025

About the author

I quit my job to write. That’s how much love writing. It’s also an indication of how utterly frustrated I was with my life as a middle manager in a national corporation. Mid-life crisis? No, I don’t think so. It’s more that I saw the finish line approaching more rapidly than I expected thirty years before.

What I am is what I write.

The characters in the St. Isidore Collection, the people who live in this town I have created in my mind, all contain some thread of me. Let’s be honest. I write what I know. And I know the frustration of listening to the millennials at work talk about their plans for the next thirty years, and suddenly realizing I don’t have thirty years left.

For Henry Branson, the protagonist in the short story, Revenge is Best Served Bloody, you’ll see that thread taken to its extreme.

Adam King, a central player in Wicked Revenge: Book 2 From the St.Isidore Collection is a middle-aged guy who quit his job to follow his dream and open a bookstore.

Bree, the protagonist in A Wicked Plan: Book 1 From the St. Isidore Collection is not a middle-aged woman. She’s a teenager. But Bree already feels the frustration that people more than twice her age experience. She feels like others are holding her back and Bree is willing to do whatever it takes to get them out of her way.

There are others in St. Isidore, who only want to love and be loved. They believe the fantasy and are willing whatever they have to do to make it come true.

Beth is the perfect example of that. She is a supporting player in A Wicked Plan, but a central character in Wicked Revenge. Beth loves Bree. She wants Bree. All Beth wants is for Bree to want and adore her. Then Beth finds out Bree is cheating on her with Melinda. What do you think Beth does?

What would you do?

And then there is Tim. Destined to become St. Isidore's most celebrated criminal, all he wants is to be loved. Does he have to kill all the women who reject him?

I see myself in all of my friends in St. Isidore. Well, maybe not Tim, but most of them. Hopefully, you will too.

Welcome to the St. Isidore Collection. It's more than a series of dark, realistic and sometimes supernatural, paranormal, noir fiction.

The St. Isidore Collection is a community. Want to be our neighbor?

Rod

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A condensed time life of the scariest afternoon in Kalamazoo's history. Multiple lives were lost at the hands of a man whose weakening mental health mistook a rideshare app as orders from the devil.

[kitty · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short but comprehensive and informative true crime read.
Fast paced.

[Hope Vollm · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve never heard of this before and it’s insane. I’ll be second guessing Ubers going forward.