On Saturday night, an Indianapolis man named Derek and his wife took her parents to a blues-rock show at the famous Bell’s Brewery in Kalamazoo, Mich.

As the night drew on, the crowd at the concert began to hear increasingly horrific news. A Kalamazoo woman had been shot outside her apartment complex. Then a father and son had been gunned down in front of an automobile dealership. Finally, a local Cracker Barrel had been turned into a bloodbath when a shooter opened fire, killing at least four.

Derek and his family were staying nearby, but he decided it was safer not to walk with a killer was on the loose in the college town.

So he ordered an Uber.

That decision could have cost them their lives.

A photo of a heavy-set man with long, salt and pepper hair, glasses and a goatee popped up on the man’s phone. Uber’s app said his name was Jason and he would arrive shortly in a dark coloured Chevy SUV.

Sure enough, the car pulled up and the family of four climbed in, with Derek in the front seat.

“My father mentioned from the back seat, you know, the situation with the shooter,” Derek told NBC affiliate WOOD TV, using only his first name.

“I kind of jokingly said to the driver, ‘You’re not the shooter, are you?’” Derek said. “He gave me some sort of a ‘no’ response ... shook his head.

“I said, ‘Are you sure?’ And he said, ‘No, I’m not, I’m just tired,’” he continued. “And we proceeded to have a pretty normal conversation after that.”

Roughly 20 minutes after the Uber driver dropped Derek and his family off at their hotel, a man matching the driver’s description was arrested nearby in connection with the deadly shooting spree.

Police identified the suspect as Jason Brian Dalton, a 45-year-old who had only recently begun working for the ride-hailing service.

Authorities in Kalamazoo charged Dalton on Monday with six counts of murder and 10 other counts, according to a copy of the complaint filed in court. Dalton faces up to life in prison if convicted in Michigan, which does not have the death penalty.

When Derek saw photos of Dalton on Sunday morning, he called Kalamazoo Police detectives to report his brush with the suspect, he told WOOD TV.

A police spokesman could not confirm or deny Derek’s account when contacted Monday, although authorities have said they believe Dalton appeared to continue looking for passengers even after his alleged shooting spree.

Uber has confirmed Dalton had been working with the company and said he had passed a background check.

“We are horrified and heartbroken at the senseless violence in Kalamazoo, Michigan,” Joe Sullivan, Uber’s chief security officer, said in a statement. “We have reached out to the police to help with their investigation in any way that we can.”

Derek and his family weren’t the only customers to have close encounters with Dalton before or during the mass shooting.

On Saturday afternoon at around 4:30 p.m., Dalton picked up a customer for a short ride but the trip turned out to be terrifying.

In an interview, Matthew Mellen said Dalton drove erratically, blowing through a stop sign, side-swiping another car, swerving in and out of traffic and refusing to stop. All the while, the Uber driver acted like everything was normal.

As soon as Dalton slowed down, Mellen jumped out and dialed 911, he said. It wasn’t until two hours later, however, that police called him back.

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By then, the alleged massacre had already begun.

A 14-year-old girl was “gravely injured” at Cracker Barrel, according to authorities. She was initially reported dead — the mass shooting’s supposed seventh victim — and was being prepped for organ donation when she suddenly squeezed her mother’s hand.

“Wow,” said a Kalamazoo police officer who asked not to be named when contacted by the Post early Monday morning. “It’s miraculous.”

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