I-96 Shooter Behind Bars on $2 Million Bond

CREATED Nov. 8, 2012

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  • Friends of Raulie Casteel say he changed over the years. Video by fox47news.com

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The man charged with the shootings on and around I-96 is behind bars on two-million dollar bond. Police suspect he's the one who's been shooting at cars for the last three weeks in four different counties.

Raulie Casteel was arraigned in Livingston County Wednesday afternoon, charged in one of the 24 shooting incidents. He faces six counts stemming from one incident, including assault with a dangerous weapon, and intentionally discharging weapons from a vehicle.

Casteel could be looking at long list of charges once this is all said and done. We've learned the weapon used in this incident was a nine millimeter pistol.

In the meantime, the feds are thankful for all the hard work by investigators and local law enforcement -- and hope the public can feel a little more at ease.

 


"He was funny. He was a good natured guy," Jeff Kosloski says he was a good friend of I-96 shooting suspect 43-year-old Raulie Casteel, as they went through grade school together in Saint Johns.

"There was certainly no point that I wouldn't have ever though, hey, this dude's gonna grow up and do something like this, ever."

To find out now that Casteel is charged with being the I-96 shooter, Kosloski believes something must have happened sometime after they grew apart, half way through high school.

"There's something wrong, and it's something severe. Whether it's mental illness, or trauma, or something that happened to him at some point in his life."

We also talked to a lot of other people who knew Casteel from their time together at Saint Johns High. They didn't want to go on camera, but tell us that he seemed to be a normal guy, but near the end of high school, he started to change, and become more distant.

Those friends who stayed closest to him up until about a year ago went on to say they lost touch because his demeanor changed; alienating some of his friends, which was about the time he began spending hours at a time tweeting about the government.

On October 1 alone, he posted 36 tweets about conspiracy theories, and his hope to see President Obama arrested. A few days earlier, a tweet supporting the second amendment stating: "I carry everywhere I go."

But it still doesn't make sense with Kosloski; how the friend he knew so well long ago, could have changed so much: "It's just kind of frightening to know what the human brain can cause somebody to do."