Inside the Rodrick Dantzler chase

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - The damage to the white Chevrolet Suburban helps tell the story -- of the steps police took to keep Rodrick Dantzler from killing again.

It's parked in the city's impound lot, next to the tan Lincoln Town Car that Dantzler drove during the worst mass murder in the city's history.

Both are marked with the letters "MCT" (Major Case Team) and criminal case numbers.

Three bullets pierced the Suburban's driver's side -- two through the front door. Grand Rapids police said they believe officers fired those shots -- possibly during the chase that wound three miles through city streets.

They later learned that a bullet went all the way through Dantzler's right ankle -- likely before he crashed on the highway and took three hostages.

Police said the shot to the ankle could have happened at South Division Avenue and Fulton Street -- where Dantzler shot a woman he knew in the arm. That's where an officer rammed the white Suburban -- leaving behind blue paint -- and traded gunfire with Dantzler, starting the chase.

Or, it could have happened near Lydia and Malta streets, a couple miles away on the northeast side, where police say they also exchanged gunfire.

Carolyn Sternisha, who lives on Lydia, watched the chase and heard the shots. "Maybe two car lengths after the SUV came barreling down, there was a cop and then another cop, then another cop," she said.

By that time, the SUV had two flat tires -- the left front and right rear, both taken out by police spike strips.

And, there's the SUV's blown out rear window, which police believe Dantzler shot out while firing back at them.

Police are still trying to trace more of Dantzler's travels that day, including a four-hour gap between the discovery of the shootings at 3 p.m. and the chase. They say he originally was driving a tan Lincoln Town Car, which was registered to his estranged wife, and that he dumped it on Godrey Avenue and Chestnut Street SW.

He spent part of the afternoon -- after the killings -- with the owner of the SUV, a Grand Rapids man who is not suspected of any wrongdoing, police said.

"We know the suspect's dead, but we are going to investigate this like we have to prosecute him," Capt. Jeffrey Hertel said. "We owe it to the family and the community to answer as many questions as we can."

Dantzler killed his estanged wife, Jennifer Heeren, and their 12-year-old daughter, Kamrie, and Heeren's parents, Thomas and Rebecca Heeren, at the family's home on Brynell Court NE.

Records show Jennifer Heeren was 20 when she married Dantzler, then 24, at a prison in Ionia in 2001 -- a year after he was sentenced to 3 to 10 years for firing shots during a road rage incident. Court records listed Heeren as a witness in that shooting.

Funerals for the Heerens were held Friday.

He killed ex-girlfriend Kimberlee Emkens, her sister, Amanda Emkens and Amanda's 10-year-old daughter, Marrisa, at a home on Plainfield Avenue NE. Their services were held Wednesday.

Services were held Friday for Dantzler, who shot himself in the head after a standoff.