Dad who murdered 12-year-old daughter--and six others--"lost it" over child visitation/custody (Grand Rapids, Michigan)

When fathers rights people compare the number of abusive fathers to abusive mothers, they tend to sweep dads like RODERICK DANZLER under the rug. And keep them hidden there as long as they can. For good reason.

Though obviously, it's easy to overlook the fact that this was a father who murdered his 12-year-old daughter--when six other people were slaughtered as well, including the girl's mother. Not to mention the people who were wounded and taken hostage by this evil piece of sh**.

And yet despite the fact that this guy was a spree killer, he had the same bull**** rationalizations for his crimes that we see in all these father killers. The poor dear was "frustrated" you see, "lost it" because the Mom "had taken his 12-year-old daughter for three days and not returned her." (Why the police are acting so befuddled is really ridiculous. This is a classic domestic violence murder--but on steroids. It's the same patern we see again and again with fathers who murder over custody (total control) over their kids and their "estranged" mother.)

So in Daddy's sicko mind, being "deprived" of control over "his" child" justified mass homicide. Including the child he presumably loved and missed so much. Pure crap. Guys like Daddy have no idea what loving a child really means. In any way, shape, or form.

And don't you know, somewhere, on some fathers rights Internet forum, all the other abuser daddies are nodding their heads and sympathizing with this poor "victim." Not one word of sympathy will be expressed for the other innocent people who lost their lives or their loved ones that day. And that's because many--if not most--of these dudes are sociopaths. They are incapable of recognizing others as having an existence independent of Daddy's own narcissistic self. And that others have the right to life and liberty just as they do.

But this isn't a great case for them to go public with, and at least the coooler heads in the movement know it. Not easy for ordinary people to rally around this kind of guy as a father "victimized" by "the system."

Nevertheless, like never ending drones, the fathers rights people will keep telling us that if we treat these fathers better (i.e. capitulate to the demands of these criminal terrorists), that the violence will subside. That's not happening. If anything, more abusers are getting custody/visitation than ever before. And the violence is NOT going down.

In fact, we might ask why a father like Danzler, an ex-con with an extensive criminal history of domestic violence and assault, still had any custodial rights AT ALL. Why weren't his parental rights terminated ages ago? That should PROVE there was no discrimination, no mistreatment. The fact that Danzler was able to maintain/retain his custodial/visitation rights despite an extensive criminal record of violence PROVES how these criminals are being CODDLED by the courts, the police, and the system at large. And in the end, all it did was feed into his sense of bloody entitlement, that he had some divine right to play God over other people's lives. Just so everybody knew that Daddy Wasn't Happy, all in a final nightmarish Daddy Drama run amuck.

Therein lays the problem. Negotiating with these guys does not save lives. It does not cut down on the blood shed. 

And rather than condemn the murdered mother as an "alienator"--which is what the fathers rights people will do--can we now admit that she had VERY GOOD REASONS for not wanting her daughter to spend time with this volatile and dangerous man?

http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/michigan-man-who-killed-1194266.html


6:11 p.m. Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Michigan man who killed 7, self 'just lost it'

By KATHY BARKS HOFFMAN


The Associated Press

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — An ex-convict who killed seven people in July before taking his own life in a Grand Rapids shooting spree had pledged in a suicide note to take his mother-in-law "with me."

Officials probably won't ever know with certainty why Rodrick Dantzler fatally shot a former girlfriend, his estranged wife, his 12-year-old daughter and four others related to them, including his mother-in law, police Chief Kevin Belk said.

Dantzler's suicide note "obviously indicated his frustration" with his estranged wife and her parents, Belk said. "Why he continues his rampage throughout the day . . . I don't think we'll ever know."

Dantzler shot at four police officers July 7 as he led them on a 12-minute chase through city streets and nearby highways, a prosecutor's report said. He wounded two people in downtown Grand Rapids during the chase and took three people hostage in a four-hour standoff. He released one before killing himself.

The 34-year-old fueled himself during the rampage with snorts of cocaine, police said.

He told his friend Willie Cunningham that he was upset with his estranged wife, Jennifer Heeren-Dantzler, 29, because she had taken his 12-year-old daughter for three days and not returned her.

In a suicide note left for his mother, he complained, "it seems like everyone that loves me walk (sic) out of my life."

Dantzler blamed his mother-in-law for talking Heeren-Dantzler into leaving him, writing, "I dont (sic) have anything nice 2 say about her! I gonna take her with me!!!"

Kent County Prosecutor William Forsyth said police found an empty 12-shot clip at his in-laws' home and a 30-shot clip emptied of all but three bullets with Dantzler where he died.

"It would appear that he was simply a very angry man," Forsyth wrote in his report on the shootings. "Driven by anger and emboldened by alcohol and cocaine, he murdered his in-laws, his wife and his daughter. He next murdered Kimberlee, Amanda and Marissa Emkens."

Dantzler previously dated Kimberlee Ann Emkens, 23. He also killed her sister, Amanda Renee Emkens, 27, and her niece, Marissa Lynn Emkens, 10.

Dantzler had a criminal record as far back as 1992, when he was charged as a juvenile with breaking and entering and car theft. That was followed over the next eight years by charges of trespassing, domestic violence, destruction of property, larceny and assault.

He couldn't legally own a firearm because of his criminal record but used a stolen .40-caliber handgun in the shootings.

He called Cunningham for a ride on the afternoon of the shooting spree but didn't initially tell him about the slayings. Cunningham told investigators his girlfriend called him about an hour later and said seven people were dead and police were looking for Dantzler. When Cunningham asked his passenger what had happened, Dantzler said he'd "just lost it."

He told Cunningham he'd killed his father-in-law first and then his mother-in-law, estranged wife and their daughter. He also said he'd killed someone else but didn't mention he'd killed seven people in all.

Cunningham urged Dantzler to turn himself in but Dantzler said he wanted to kill himself instead. Cunningham noticed police cars approaching from the rear and jumped out of the white Suburban without stopping the car. Dantzler slid behind the wheel and took off with police in pursuit. Eventually, he crashed and fled on foot.

Belk praised the three people taken hostage that evening for their coolness under pressure.

"Their actions were remarkable," he said.

All three hid as they saw Dantzler running through their backyard, but he found two of them, Steve Helderman and Joyce Bean. He eventually released Bean after receiving Gatorade and cigarettes.

When a special response team got in through the home's basement about halfway through the standoff, Dantzler took Helderman with him into a bedroom closet. Megan Holmes came out from under the bed to try to calm Dantzler when he became agitated and threatened to shoot Helderman,

Dantzler ended his killing spree by shooting himself in the head at 11:29 p.m.

The others killed in the shooting spree were Dantzler's 12-year-old daughter, Kamrie Deann Heeren-Dantzler; his mother-in-law, 52-year-old Rebecca Lynn Heeren; and his father-in-law, 51-year-old Thomas Heeren.