By Jordan Wilcox
Assistant Publisher
On Sunday, September 28th, at approximately 3:02 p.m., Kalamazoo County dispatchers received multiple reports of a red Jeep Wrangler driving erratically southbound on Oakland Drive. Witnesses observed the vehicle leaving the roadway and crashing into a tree near Oakland Drive and West VW Avenue.
According to the Village of Schoolcraft Police Department, the Jeep then left the scene, continuing to South 16th Street and West VW Avenue, where it broke down. Two “potentially armed” suspects, a male driver and a female passenger, were seen fleeing on foot, only to briefly return for what appeared to be a firearm case. Afterwards, they fled again into a nearby cornfield.
Following the evasion, multiple law enforcement agencies sprung into action. Deputies with the Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Office (KCSO) quickly set up a perimeter and launched drones and K-9 teams to search for the suspect. They were joined by the Village of Schoolcraft Police, Great Lakes Drone Services, Portage Department of Public Safety, Vicksburg Police, and the South Kalamazoo County Fire Authority, who were also looking for the suspects.
Due to the intersection’s close proximity to Schoolcraft’s schools, and out of an abundance of caution, Superintendent Nate Ledlow simultaneously emailed parents that school will be closed on Monday. He said that the administrative team will use the time to ”review and strengthen security measures, ensuring we have the proper protections in place for a safe return to school,” and that “ regardless of what else happens…, the decision to cancel school tomorrow will remain.”
At 6:23 p.m., the search was called off, after law enforcement officials had completely searched the cornfield and located neither suspect. They did find the case, which turned out to be for a guitar, as well as a duffle bag. They also learned that the Jeep had been stolen out of Portage.
At about 9 p.m., the KCSO announced that they had located the male driver of the vehicle, 35-year-old, Erick R. Kibler, but were still searching for the female passenger. Later in the night, they located her too − 32-year-old, Miranda Paige Hagaman.
Kibler was arrested on outstanding warrants for methamphetamine possession and was feloniously charged on Monday, with two counts of resisting and obstructing, and one count of receiving and concealing a stolen vehicle. Hagaman was charged with two counts of resisting and obstructing.
Schools reopened on Tuesday.
Strangely enough, this marks the second crime and suspect search within the area within a month. On the night of Wednesday, September 3rd, 27-year-old, Dakota Hall viciously stabbed his father during an argument, then ran away from his home on West VW Avenue between South 14th Street and Oakland Drive. Hall was briefly seen in the morning, but promptly disappeared again, causing Schoolcraft Schools to enter a precautionary “lock-up”. At around 9:11 am, authorities were able to track Hall down to a ditch on East Lyon Street and take him into police custody without incident.
All three remain lodged in the Kalamazoo County Jail.
