Dantzler negotiator: 'What do you say?'

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - Sgt. Matthew Janiskee was off on July 7 and spending time with his family in northern Michigan when he got a call.

Rodrick Dantzler had killed seven people including his own daughter, led police on a high-speed chase through some of the busiest parts of Grand Rapids, and then smashed through the door of a home where he'd taken two known hostages.

"That's stuff you read about -- watch on TV or the national news. Couldn't believe it actually happened here," said Janiskee.

Janiskee is a hostage negotiator, and he was the man called to attempt to talk Dantzler into releasing his hostages and give himself up to police.

"You start thinking, what are you gonna say to this person? What could you possibly say to this person?" he described his thought process. "I don't think they could've made this up for training. ... A lot of times the term came up in this incident, 'We're out of the playbook now.'"

Considering what Dantzler had already done and the agitated call he made to 911 after entering the home in which he stated he would kill the hostages because he was "already dead," the fate of the hostages seemed grim.

But Janiskee stayed focused.

"You try not to think about that. You do everything you can to get those people out of that house," he said. "Once you get on the phone, it's all positive thoughts."

Janiskee was able to talk with Dantzler over the phone and negotiations started quickly.

"We were just doing the best you could. There was no manual for this situation," he said. "You just go right to your training. You get into a mode or a zone. You just do your job. That's what we're trained to do."

Dantzler's first request was Gatorade and cigarettes. In exchange, he would release a hostage. Dantzler eventually made good on that promise and the negotiations seemed to be going smoothly.

Then came a major blow.

"We can't print the words I actually said. It was more like, you gotta be kidding me."

Police learned there was a third person -- a woman -- in the house who had been hiding. The woman, Meg Holmes, had emerged to ease mounting tension between Danztler and the other hostage Steve Helderman, who was hard of hearing.

"That was probably the lowest point right there," said Janiskee of the realization that there was another hostage. "One step forward, five steps back, 'cause she was hiding."

For police, initially, it meant that there were still two hostages and a fear that Dantzler would become even more agitated:

"Who knows what he thought, how mad he would be, that she didn't present herself from the beginning and then came out of hiding."

But Holmes would become a leader in the negotiations that night. At times, she acted as a middleman between Dantzler and the police. She was a calming force inside the house.

"She put herself in a lot of danger. She gets a lot of credit for what she did," said Janiskee of Holmes's bravery. "I think she sacrificed herself for the other hostage."

Her steadfast presence also helped police -- and Janiskee -- stay calm.

Hours later there was a final gunshot. In the intense moments after, Janiskee waited for what seemed like eternity to learn who that bullet had hit.

As a negotiator, one of the most important parts of Janiskee's job is ensuring the safety of the hostages. "The best moments for me was the hostages are with us and they're safe. That was probably the best news I could hear," said Janiksee. "It was a big sigh of relief."

And in the tough-skinned world of police, the night had actually ended fairly successfully. None of the hostages had been killed, and Dantzler's victims had been stopped cold at seven.

"The chief even gave me a hug afterward, so the chief doesn't hug you everyday," said Janiskee.

But if he's called a hero, Janiskee has only one thing to say:

"You've seen the video tapes, haven't you?" Jankisee said, referring to the dashcam videos from police who were on Dantzler's tail that day. "There's a lot of heroes on that videotape."

Janiskee said that the men who faced Dantzler head-on are the real heroes. "I was not fired upon. Those guys put themselves in harm's way."