GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Roderick Dantzler — who killed seven people and terrorized an entire community in a rampage Thursday in Grand Rapids — was involved in dozens of scrapes with the law that began when he was 15 and resulted in four charges of domestic violence and assault by the time he was 21, Kent County court records and law enforcement said.

Five times, women, girlfriends and his own mother went to court to seek personal protection orders after violent outbursts that included assault, destruction of property and obscenity-laced threats.

In 2000, at age 23, Dantzler was on his way to prison for three years, following a road rage incident in which he fired five shots at another driver.

Among the victims Thursday was the mother of another of his children, 29-year-old Jennifer Marie Heeren, their 12-year-old daughter Kamrie Deann Heeren-Dantlzer, and Marie Heeren’s parents Thomas, 51 and Rebecca Lynn, 52.

At another location, police said Dantzler killed another woman with whom he’d had a relationship in the past, 23-year-old Kimberly Ann Emkens, her sister, Amanda Renee Emkens, 27, and Amanda Emkens 10-year-old daughter Marissa Lynn.

Another shooting victim, who was not seriously injured, was another ex-girlfriend who ran into Dantzler by happenstance near downtown Grand Rapids in the midst of his frantic flight from police.

Authorities at a Friday news conference called the rampage, which ended when Dantzler committed suicide, a “horrific instance of domestic violence.”