Rodrick Dantzler’s two ex-girlfriends whom he murdered were white; six of his seven victims were white

Max P. writes:

As I was reading about the seven victims in Grand Rapids I recalled your post: “Why white women put themselves in great danger when they hook up with a black man.”

At the Heeren’s home Rodrick Dantzler killed his white girlfriend, their child, and her mother and father. At the Emkens’ home he killed his former white girlfriend, her sister and her sister’s daughter.

LA replies:

I had no thought that this would be the case. I had simply assumed that the victims were black. In reality, it’s turned out to be a super-confirmation of my blog entry that you’ve linked.

In several articles I’ve read at mlive.com, there is, of course, not a single reference to the race of the murderer and his victims, not a single mention of the remarkable fact that a black felon had two white girlfriends and murdered both of them along with their families. We only know about the racial truth of these murders from those silent photographs. The race of the murderer and the victims will never be discussed.

Meanwhile the entire city of Grand Rapids is in deep Eloi-style passive clueless grieving. It’s all, “We have no idea why this happened, nothing like this is supposed to happen here, how will we ever recover?” But according to a column by the editor of the Grand Rapids News I posted the other day, Rodrick Shonte Dantzler was described by acquaintances as “crazy” and “dangerous,” and he was supposed to be taking psycho-active medications but was not taking them. How many murders have been committed by people who should have been in a state institutions under lock and key but weren’t, and who had gone off the meds? And how many white women have been killed by their black boyfriends? But the Eloi of Grand Rapids, at least as they are portrayed by the local media, have no idea why these murders happened and are collectively absorbed in the healing process.

Below are photographs of the victims. The mlive.com site, instead of putting the photos together on one page, put each photo on a separate page, with all the photos linked from a common page. (UPDATE: Here, sent by a reader, is a page at mlive.com which has photographs of everyone and indicates their relationships. It also says that Jennifer Heeren was the “estranged wife” of Dantzler.)

Kimberlee Emkens, Dantzler’s ex-girlfriend

Amanda Renee Emkens, Kimberlee’s sister

Marissa Lynn Emkens, Amanda’s daughter

Jennifer Heeren, Dantzler’s girlfriend (or estranged wife)

Thomas Heeren, Jennifer’s father

Rebecca Heeren, Jennifer’s mother

Kamrie Keeren Dantzler,
daughter of Jennifer Heeren and Rodrick Dantzler

And here is the gentleman caller himself:

Rodrick Dantzler

Max continues:

Evidently these women not only put themselves in great danger, but they also put their loved ones in danger too. Dantzler was 34 and Jennifer Heeren, the mother of his child, was 29. Since their daughter was 12, that would have put her birth around 1999 when her mother was only 16 to 17 years old. I don’t see how the parents would have allowed a 16 year old to get caught up with a troubled 21 year old man with a criminal history. Regardless of race I cannot imagine my father allowing my sisters to enter such a relationship.

LA writes:

And guess what, after he murdered the seven, he chased and shot at a third former girlfriend, April Swanson, in her car. She escaped and called the police. April was with her daughter when Dantzler was chasing and trying to kill her. April’s daughter is apparently not Dantzler’s daughter.

I haven’t seen a photo of April Swanson yet, but based on her Swedish surname and Dantzler’s general racial preference in girlfriends, I’d say it’s a two-thirds likelihood that she’s also white.

Here is the account of Dantzler’s attempted murder of Swanson, followed by the rest of his escape, his invasion of a house where he took hostages, and his suicide:

While police were investigating the seven slayings, Belk said, officers received a report of a “road rage” shooting.

Dantzler had apparently shot at a man through the rear window of the vehicle he was driving. Police spotted him, and began a chase that included Dantzler crashing into a patrol car downtown and exchanging gunfire with officers. A female bystander was shot in the shoulder.

Karissa Swanson, 18, said her mother was the woman who was shot, and that she had known Dantzler for many years.

Swanson said her mother, 35-year-old April Swanson, was driving and chatting on her cellphone when Dantzler suddenly pulled up beside her.

“My mom turned her head and he was right there, yelling her name, like, ‘April, April, I gotta talk, I gotta talk to you,’” Swanson said. “So my mom hung up the phone and called the police and was like, ‘He’s right next to me.’”

The daughter said Dantzler chased her mother until they got caught at a stoplight, when he shot at her car.

Pickup driver Robert Poore, who also was shot during the chase, told police that the bullet ricocheted off a titanium plate that had been inserted in his nose during cancer treatment when he was a child, according to WOOD-TV. Poore suffered only minor injuries.

Dantzler drove a sport utility vehicle north from downtown and onto Interstate 96, crossing a grassy median and heading the wrong way down the highway while more than a dozen squad cars pursued him.

He eventually crashed the vehicle while driving down an embankment into a wooded area.

Dantzler then made his way toward a nearby home, firing several shots as he forced his way inside and took hostages he did not know, police said. Dozens of officers with guns drawn cordoned off the neighborhood in the northern part of the city.

That was about 7:30 p.m. Over the next five hours, Dantzler alternately threatened to shoot the hostages and pleaded with police to take him out, even asking negotiators whether there were snipers outside the home and where he should stand. He sometimes fired his gun at officers and inside the home, Belk said.

July 10

A reader writes:

This is April Swanson’s Facebook page. You can see photos of her kids (Karissa, 18, is mentioned in one of the articles … she had her when she was 17 or so) and one of the baby daddies. Underclass whites who emulate ghetto blacks turn my stomach.

April Swanson

Posted by Lawrence Auster at July 09, 2011 06:30 PM | Send