Beloved Father & Son Murdered by Stranger | Murdered at First Sight | Forensic Files

[Music] probably don't remember that that was right when we brought Tyler home from
the hospital and you were enamored with him growing up in the Smith household was
never a dull moment um we always had something going on um we were very busy busy family
when I first saw Rich obviously I was attracted to him I was dancing and you know he asked me to dance and we had a
good time that day this was at Kalamazoo Christian you and Tyler and Dad uh Christmas that
was our last Christmas 2015 Christmas yeah throughout the day on February 20th 2016
there are various 911 calls made to Kalamazoo dispatch two cars have been shot up there's three people in one car
and one guy is not moving I was at home in the evening I received a few texts from friends that they
thought something was going on in regards to someone shooting guns in the community
he was an Uber driver not somebody that we would think would go about killing random people
you could see him fiddling with something in his jacket pocket and he approached both Tyler and Richard and
shot them when I heard my mom scream so I was like oh my gosh like maybe they got in an
accident and eventually um somebody told me they're like no they were killed they didn't they didn't
survive I still have those days where has this just been a really long bad dream or
like do I really have to go on without them it's weird where your mind takes you
more than a part of me died too that day and will never [Music] will never live again
[Music] so yeah we just have a couple pictures up here of rich and Tyler this is Tyler's senior picture more of
Tyler when he was growing up and Tyler had a Pontiac Solstice and so one of his pictures for his senior
pictures was with his solstice and it was on the beach he wasn't supposed to be on the beach but he drove
that car right up there and we were able to get the picture before we got in trouble
he was a rebel like that rich and I met at a local bar I was 17 or 18. but every Thursday they had a
ladies night and uh so people under 21 could get in and so we would go there to dance
he says that we met through a friend of his when I was over at their house and he rode up on jet skis
so there's a bit of a [Music] discrepancy as to how we met but we met that's the important part is that we met
my dad was a huge breakfast person like every other meal could be like PB J but breakfast had to be like pancakes eggs
sausage bacon you know potatoes the whole nine yards it couldn't just be it couldn't just be
boring Rich was [Music] I'm gonna try not to cry um he was one of a kind um [Music]
he supported me no matter what even um even if I was wrong [Music] my brother was in sports I was in sports
so sometimes we had to split and go separate ways but for the most part you know I went to my brother's things and
my brother went to mine and my mom and dad went to that so we we were always with each other
Tyler and Emily's relationship was a typical relationship he was annoying at times to her
even when they were at the annoying stage right they still were the best of friends
[Music] this was my favorite picture because you're you look very alike you can definitely tell your brother and sister
and your wide-eyed first car I blame it on rich because I said are you really going to
buy him for his first car a sports car and we told them that if he got a ticket in it to just come give us the keys he
had to behave himself he did get a ticket one time [Music] February 20th 2016 I woke up and I
didn't have to work because it was Saturday my dad did though so he he made sure to let me know like hey I'm glad
you're sleeping in I'm going to work at 5am and we were gonna go do our taxes after he had gotten out of work
Emily met rich and I at the tax place and we got our taxes done Tyler wasn't working yet
Tyler had decided that he was going to go pick up his girlfriend and he wanted to look for a truck for his business
that he wanted to start I had gotten in a fight with my boyfriend at the time um and
so I was talking to my dad about it before my mom got to the taxes every Saturday usually my daughter and I
liked to country line dance and so there was a country line dancing bar not very
far from here night really like nauseous like I was really nauseous I was really sick my stomach
hurt and I didn't know why I was like I'm just gonna like take some meds and try to go to sleep and see if I
can you know feel better in a couple hours my mom had gone out with my boyfriend at
the time they went to Cowboy Up I was at the country line dancing bar Emily was sleeping in her apartment and
I didn't know this but rich and Tyler were out with Alexis and Tyler was showing Rich the trucks that he had
looked at that day but I didn't know that as far as I knew they were at home [Music]
on February 20th I was actually at my house and was getting ready for bed when I got a call from one of our Detectives
at the State Police you said that we had a quadruple homicide [Music] I was also informed that the shooting
was likely related to two previous shootings that happened the same day in the Kalamazoo area
I got dressed and immediately responded to the scene I remember somebody coming up to me at
the country line dancing bar and telling me hey do you think that we should call
Emily and they said well there's somebody going around Kalamazoo shooting people and I'm like what where
it was on Stadium Drive which was a ways away from where her apartment was I'm like no she's third level apartment
she's back in the woods like there's no way that anything's gonna don't upset her because she doesn't need to know
we went about our night we ended up leaving early because I was ready to leave and her boyfriend was ready to
leave so I went out got in the car he was driving um and I plugged in my phone charger and
you know I have all these millions of texts from my twin sister and I had a missed call from Alexis's
mom on my phone and I was reading my sister's texts and she was like where is Tyler
there's some guy going around you know shooting people and we just were trying to get a hold of them so can you let me
know once you hear from them that was basically her texts right but it was over and over and over again
so I immediately texted Tyler and I said hey Alexis's mom called my phone had died so I'm just now getting it if this
wakes you up can you just have Alexis call her mom because I'm sure she's worried about her whatever
um and usually Tyler will respond back and say okay um to know that he got the text and he
didn't [Music] when I first received the call it was not a call we would normally receive in
this area with that amount of people that had been shot and killed he also said you're not going to believe
this but we may have a Serial shooter because they had another homicide which was a double up at the Sealy
dealership in Kalamazoo when I arrived at the scene I noticed several tents that were marking fired
cartridge cases and different evidence located at the scene as well as two deceased individuals
lying in the parking lot covered I got two right now on the ground I tried calling rich and of course none
of them answered but I didn't think anything of it because I thought if they turned off their phones then I wouldn't
hear it right when I didn't get either one of them then I told her boyfriend well maybe you
better take me to my house so that I can just check and make sure that everything's okay
I came in through the front door I noticed that the kitchen light was on which was out of the ordinary but I
didn't really think much of it um but it wasn't until I walked down the hall to our bedroom
and I opened up the door and Rich wasn't there [Music] it sounds like it was a slow thing but
it wasn't it was really super quick just going through my mind and my heart sunk
when he wasn't in his bed because I knew something had happened [Music] thank you
Let's see we have two uh down I have one female in a vehicle a Range Rover it appeared to be a father and son based
on the information that we had and the son's girlfriend was also still at the scene and she was being interviewed and
had told us that she had witnessed the entire murder I don't know where he came from over
here in total we had 16 fired cartridge cases and one of the bodies was hit nine
times and the other was hit seven times at that point Emily's boyfriend had come
in the front door and I had run back out into the kitchen and I said it's them it's them we have to go we have to go to
Stadium Drive [Music] and he's like what are you talking about and so I just started yelling at him and
telling him to go get in the car and then I called 9-1-1 and I told them who I was and I was
asking what hospital rich and Tyler were at [Music] Emily's boyfriend said let's go
get Emily or let's go we should go check on Emily and so I'm like okay and so I gave the
9-1-1 operator the address of her apartment the whole ride there I was trying to get
her to tell me and I said the news said that the sister was in the back seat I said it wasn't I said if this is Tyler
and Rich it wasn't the sister it was Tyler's girlfriend Alexis and I said is Alexis okay
and the 911 operator said yes and I heard my mom scream from out in my parking lot and I looked at the time and
it was like three o'clock in the morning and I was like what in the world is going on
she came downstairs and she walked out and I was at the back of the car and and I just looked at him and I just kept
saying they're gone they're gone Daddy and Tyler they've been shot they're gone throughout the day on February 20th 2016
there are various 911 calls made at Kalamazoo dispatch it started with the shooting over at The Meadows Apartments
and then that segued into a second shooting up at the Sealy right of Richard and Tyler Smith
emergency okay and then the last shooting was the culmination of of the other two which
took place at the Cracker Barrel located on 9th Street in which five individuals
were shot hello 911 are you okay ma'am Cleveland shot where were you shot I think your heart okay we've got help on
the way my instincts were because of the related crimes that we had that we are going to have to move as
quick as we can on this because if these three crimes are related this person is
not going to stop [Music] I just thought it was a nightmare and I wasn't really even hearing the words
that they were saying all I kept saying is I you know whatever they said I don't even know what they
said but I remember that I said what do we do now I dropped to my knees right in front of
the garage and I just yelled I yelled at God and I just said I don't know what you're doing like why why rich and Tyler
why me why us [Music] I was at home in the evening I received a few texts from friends that they
thought something was going on in regards to someone shooting guns in the community
and then I received an alert from our law enforcement Folks at Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety just sort of
alerting me that some issue an incident was happening they weren't sure what but
it was happening throughout the area and that there was a Manhunt on for the Killer
the feeling that was going through my head at the time when I saw the bodies was that we had a father and son that
had been murdered and it looked as if from the placement of how they were laying that the father was attempting to
protect his son either when they fell before they fell or after they had been hit by gunfire
it was pretty clear from the way that the bodies were lying that Richard was trying to protect Tyler in his last
moments he must have seen the man with a gun and at least tried his best to intervene and save his son which was not
possible and for the First Responders to come there and to have seen the scene like this
you can just imagine that while they see traumatic things all the time how difficult this scene must have been for
them [Music] I really was a little fearful of what was going on not knowing where this
individual would end up next not knowing whom they would be near I certainly made
a quick call to my family making sure that they were all home and safe it was really scary
when I heard that Tyler's girlfriend was at the scene hiding in their vehicle and saw what had occurred
I I just felt horrible for her I knew she was a young girl and to see something like that is so traumatic for
anyone and for her to maintain that composure in that situation after seeing what she
did and not screaming and then having the wherewithal to call 9-1-1 to get the information was amazing
[Music] thank you I didn't really like have an emotion like I don't remember having like
feelings I just felt numb foreign I smoked cigarettes at the time so I just went out on my deck and just
probably smoked an entire pack of cigarettes because that's what I did um and my mom called my aunt and told
her what had happened um and then the police officer who told me ended up asking me if I could tell him
where my dad's mom lived so that they could go tell her what was going on and I got angry at them which
I feel bad about now so I said I'll tell her so they finally like all left and one officer came back and knocked on
my door and like I opened it and he just gave me a hug I remember that one because I mean it probably traumatized
them that was like the worst thing Kalamazoo probably had ever seen [Music] I'd never experienced anything like this
I had heard of shootings and was alerted to shootings as mayor or not a super dangerous town
this incident was so widespread I was trying to understand what is going on why is this happening we've had so
many mass shootings in our country I thought this one was different because it was happening in different places
I can't remember when I found out that there were other victims I can't remember
if I found out that night the detectives might have told us while we were at Emily's apartment but I honestly don't
remember we'll never know what made him go to different scenes what made him choose
rich and Tyler I don't even know like it's all a blur it still is Oliver [Music]
what we have here is the video surveillance of the Kia dealership on February 20th 2016.
and you can see right here is the Smiths pulling in in their vehicle to go look at the cars on a lot
after that we see a second vehicle Drive In it goes by The Smith's car that's parked
in the lot with the lights on starts walking toward Richard and Tyler Smith then stops for a minute to check
something in his right pocket which I believe is the gun the surveillance videotape from the car
dealership was invaluable to police they were able to get some information about
the build and the look of the person who had done this the type of car he was driving and even some information about
his tags I was clearly indication that this was a stranger who had committed the murders
entirely random shooting initially we had a lead on a potential dark color vehicle that was gleaned
through surveillance footage at both Seeley Wright the car dealership as well as the Cracker Barrel
we also had two witnesses that saw a vehicle leaving the Cracker Barrel at a high rate of speed
after our victims had been shot in the parking lot I'm at the um Kalamazoo Cracker Barrel
on those big gunshots in a car there's gunshots in a car yes two cars have been shot up there's three
people in one car and one guy is not moving which to the Apple that fired the gun it's a blue HHR dark blue and it
drove off right as we pulled up we had a vehicle description which was a Chevrolet HHR dark colored vehicle
so with all of that information put together it was at that point that he became the primary suspect
he's running back to his vehicle which is the HHR he gets into the driver's side
turns on a light pulls out and then continues out of the frame [Music] we know the gunman killed some people
randomly at Cracker Barrel which was in the middle of nowhere so that indicates that this this perpetrator is mobile
he's traveling around to random places and that must have made it even more terrifying for the citizens of Kalamazoo
because nowhere is safe I found out that the police had a suspect from the police officer we
didn't know anything other than that we knew he was a man we didn't know how old
he was we didn't know anything about him so we found out um on the news who he was
really important for the police to be able to catch a spree killer because by their very nature they're random so they
could go on indefinitely until the perpetrator was caught Jason Dalton became the suspect when
when he was pulled over in Kalamazoo at 12 40 AM and at that point when he was pulled
over he was in possession of a bullet resistant vest which he was wearing as well as a nine millimeter firearm
he was pulled over and it was actually a traffic stop that was I don't want to say routine but not what
you'd expect come over here on your side here what I was expecting to happen when this
individual got pulled over is he or she was going to shoot at police and or maybe kill himself which is
common in these types of situations but that is not what happened at 41 minutes when I was first notified about the
cases approximately about 7 A.M I responded to the fifth district headquarters office where I made contact
with all the investigators that they were pretty tired they'd been working all night I spoke with Lieutenant
Christensen they gave me a quick briefing advice that Mr Dalton the suspect was uh saying that he was having
issues with the Uber app that had caused him to do this situation do the shooting as I
was leaving to go speak to him our phone tech was working on Mr Dalton's cell phone so I asked to look at his pictures
to see what was important to him and he had on he had very few pictures of his family
and he had a lot of pictures of a black German Shepherd as I was a former dog handler
had worked a German Shepherd myself it gave me a conversation piece to be able to talk to him
Dalton's state of mind that day was odd to say the least the fact that he had killed the people that he did and was
still picking up fares in between these killings is odd and strange however could those individuals Within
those Vehicles when he's picking up a fair been a victim they could have been but
it didn't fit the method of operation or his Mo that he was using that day in a case like this where there's an
Uber driver and he is picking up random people a lot of times you think well why
wouldn't you choose then to be his victims knowing the app saw exactly where he would go and pick people up and
drop them off so if he killed them he thought he would get caught too quickly and he wanted to be able to commit more
murders that way when I made contact with Mr Dalton for the first time he was seated in a small
room at the Kalamazoo County Jail he initially thought that I was his attorney and I advised him I was not and
I told him my name and I told him I rank with the state police he initially stated that he didn't want
to speak with me I asked him if he liked soda and he advised that he did so I I asked
him if he wanted a Coke he said he would like to have a Coke so I gave him one of their coca-colas
that I had purchased on the way to the interview and Mr Dalton and I sat and just talked about just general things
and we had to drink a Coca-Cola together we did develop information that Dalton visited gun shops prior to these
shootings we also know that Dalton had weapons in the past guns he was an avid shooter
the fact that he was armed and how he switched Vehicles how he switched guns after it didn't work definitely tells me
that these acts were premeditated by him and he just pulled right over right over
the other gun on them so when I spoke to him about his German Shepherd he was very open
right after the the whole dog conversation we had known that Dalton liked guns he
actually told me that he had used a German gun during this incident this was the first time a crime
like this happened in the City of Kalamazoo it actually brought a lot of different people I
think together in a good way after after these tragic incidents happen [Music] our community rallied around us so much
and like you know the amount of vigils and you know support and love that we were given from
the community was just endless um but it was almost overwhelming [Music] thank you
[Music] foreign [Music] Jason Dalton killed six people [Music] I sat and spoke to him for several hours
for the why it was not ever asked [Music] he was a little chubby old man he had to
hide behind a car and sneak up on him and take him by surprise [Music] otherwise
he never would have gotten [Music] away with anything they would have stopped right there right there at Sealy
it would have stopped had they known he was there and had they known what he was
planning to do I only imagine how shocking it must have been not just to see a man who appears
someone out of nowhere on this car lot after hours but then the next thing they see is that he has a Gun there's
absolutely nothing good that's going to come next Jason Dalton was very calm he was very
Collective he was very proper he knew that there was nothing that he could do to turn this around or to change what
had happened he actually referred to himself as a monster and he knew that there was nothing that he
could say or do to make anything right about this situation to this day I regularly think about that
situation and the entire sequence of events that day and what a tragedy is and was
sorry I'm getting a little emotional here sorry I I felt he living here and growing up here that
we were different doesn't mean that we were perfect and that we didn't have things that we shouldn't have had happen
in this community whether it's around guns or violence but we had never seen anything at this
level before there were ceremonies at churches there were gatherings in our Parks Candlelight
vigils everyone trying to make sense of a senseless act you just can't make sense of
any of this you just can't the day that we were supposed to go to trial he pled guilty to everything but
he waited of course for however many years that was which again cowardly maybe he thought he was
going to get off on being insane oh he's insane all right but it's nothing that he can hide behind
um he knew full while what he was doing and just didn't want to sit through and hear
it because he knew what was what a trial was going to be and that every little detail was going
to come out and he didn't want to tell why he wanted the focus to be on him but he didn't want that kind of attention
Kalamazoo County state of Michigan defendant did murder Tyler Smith guilty of this offense it is a felony
punishable by it for life in prison you understand the charges being made against you and then maximum sentences
that I just stated right from the beginning of the arraignment through the court process he
was not remorseful he was acting very strange she would have outbursts during the courtroom and would say things that
didn't make sense his behavior in the courtroom was bizarre which ultimately we did not go to trial on this and he
ended up pleading two his charges we all got called and said that he was pleading guilty and The Plea was
happening at like 10 o'clock when we weren't even supposed to be there until like noon we got there and he pled
guilty to everything that he did and I mean he just he did the bare minimum he never said anything more than just
answering the judge's questions he said yes they read off the names of every person and hearing my brother and my
dad's name red off with murder and then him saying yes was very very very hard to hear because
there was no emotion it was just like he was answering uh do you want pizza for dinner
I've heard a lot of Victim Impact statements and what was different about this impact statement was just the sheer
amount of victims families the amount of people that were affected that was different but obviously the
impact statements themselves were tragic it's a horrible situation and I wouldn't have expected them to be
anything anything but when I was doing the victim impact statement I might have been looking at
the judge because the judge was like up in front of me and we were we were told that we had to direct the victim impact
statement to the judge other people tried to direct things at him and they were changed because we weren't allowed
to Jason Dalton was sentenced to life in prison it was inappropriate sentencing for his actions
I have never met someone who has no emotion I personally believe that he's a psychopath you can see when someone has
empathy or has sorrow or feels like they've done the worst thing in the world like
you could you could tell that in a person and he sat there like he was being accused of cheating on a test and
he didn't care I don't wish him well I don't wish him any sort of Happiness whatsoever I'm glad that he is in prison
for the rest of his life no sentence no nothing will ever be enough for me my only hope is that one day he feels a
shred of the pain inside that I deal with on a regular basis it just seems like nothing will ever be enough nothing
will ever be able to take away what happened to me or to them or to anyone that he ruined
their lives and it just makes it worse that he doesn't even care I think he killed six people that day
because for whatever reason felt that that's what he had to do and because of the randomness of it and
how he went about it and the recklessness of it it seemed as though in his mind he said I have to do this
over a couple of weeks from interviews and background that we did he had been becoming paranoid and I
believe that played a part in it as well I want him to suffer and that's not Christian of me I should not say that
but that's truly how I feel he has destroyed my life and my family life and took my
daughter's daddy away she walked down the aisle carrying his urn I have one voicemail left he was calling
me to let me know that he was going to be late it was like I can't be there I love you kid and so I put that in the
beginning of the video and I sat in the middle of the Dance Floor by myself while the video played
and the pictures and the song and um bawled my eyes out [Music] I remember them and every single thing I
do I remember them I don't walk down the side of the road or walk out my door or
drive down the road without having a thought about them or a memory about them or
I wonder what they're doing in heaven or you know like every single day I wake up
and and something somewhere and it's not very hard reminds me of them um I just hope
that I'm making them proud and that eventually I'll be able to see them again [Music]
I feel horrible about what happened that day it was a very tragic day for a lot of innocent people that did absolutely
nothing wrong um they just had the unfortunate circumstances of coming across Jason
Dalton as far as Jason Dalton I don't understand why he would have done what he did
I feel that Justice was done in this case from a legal standpoint with regard to
the sense that was handed down I believe this was a first degree murder which is
the most serious crime you can commit in the state of Michigan however the families are still suffering with loss
all of them are and certain victims trauma from the event so in that regard it's still difficult
for the families every single day that they wake up [Music] so Justice was done legally
but they're still Injustice in the acts that he committed and how he affected these families
I've written him hundreds of letters that I've never sent because I don't have any words for him because
nothing I say will ever change anything that happened as much as my mom and I miss them and
wish that we were also a family my mom and I have each other and Tyler and Dad have each other I guess it gives me
comfort knowing that they aren't alone [Music] I really want to know why and I really want to just tell them that
there are no words to describe what this has done to me and my daughter and my family
there are no words to describe [Music] what type of [Music] troubled evil Soul could do something like this
[Music] [Music]

When father and son Richard and Tyler Smith venture out one night in 2016 in Kalamazoo, Michigan, it seems like a normal night. When a stranger approaches their parked car – everything changes.

Richard and Tyler Smith are approached by what would soon be known as the Kalamazoo Mass Murderer. The tragic events that unfold shake the community and the Smith family to their core.

Murdered At First Sight is a true crime documentary series that tells the first-hand stories of the most complex and hard-to-solve homicide cases: murders committed by strangers.

Brief Summary

Family members recount the tragic Kalamazoo shooting that claimed Richard and Tyler Smith's lives, detailing their grief and the impact on the community.

Key points

A Family's Last Christmas. The Smith family's last Christmas together in 2015 is remembered fondly.
The Day of the Tragedy. February 20th, 2016, marked a devastating day for the Smith family.
The Shocking Discovery. A detective informs a family member about a quadruple homicide.
Community's Response to Tragedy. The Kalamazoo community rallied together in support after the tragic events, holding vigils and gatherings.
Jason Dalton's Calmness During Court. Despite his heinous actions, Dalton remained calm and collected in court, showing no remorse.
Dalton's Guilty Plea. Dalton pled guilty to all charges, displaying a lack of emotion throughout the process.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

More than a part of me died too that day.

Reflecting on the loss of loved ones.

2:16WatchSep 20, 2023

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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