UNITED STATES. Ohio : A father lined up his three sons and “executed” them with a rifle in the garden of the family home and wounded their mother in an Ohio shooting on Thursday night, say police.
Chad Doerman, 32, was detained in Clermont County and charged with killing the three young boys, aged 7, 4, and 3, in the tragic incident, as per authorities.
The shooting was first reported at around 4:15 p.m. by an unidentified woman who called 911 while screaming that “her babies had been shot,” said officials from the sheriff’s office.
At 4:18 p.m., the Communication Centre received a second call from a passerby who claimed to have seen a small girl rushing down the street, yelling that her father “was killing everyone.”
Clermont County Sheriff’s Officers responded to a residence in Monroe Township, which is located around 25 miles southeast of Cincinnati, where they saw the suspect sitting on a stairway outside. He was detained without any trouble.
When the deputies arrived at the scene,the victims were unresponsive in the yard with gunshot injuries. Prior to the arrival of Monroe Fire and EMS, they made numerous attempts to revive the kids, but they all succumbed to their wounds on the spot.
“All life-saving measures were unsuccessful, and all three gunshot victims succumbed to their injuries while on scene,” deputies said.
Their 34-year-old mother, the fourth gunshot victim, was also located outside the home with what seemed to be a single gunshot wound to the hand that wasn’t life-threatening.
She was then taken to Cincinnati’s University Hospital, where she was informed that her kids had passed away.
According to the sheriff’s office, there were no indications of a forced entry into the house, and no other suspects are being sought by the investigation.
Doerman is being detained in the Clermont County Jail without bond and is scheduled to be arraigned in court early on Friday at the Clermont County Municipal Court.
The boys’ bodies were brought to the coroner’s office in Hamilton County for autopsies.
‘Our hearts are once again broken tonight as we yet again ask the community to lift up those affected by this awful incident,’ said Tracey Miller, superintendent of the New Richmond Exempted School District, in a statement on Thursday.
She continued by saying that on Friday, grief counsellors would be available at Monroe Elementary.
The boys have not yet been publicly identified, and information regarding the circumstances leading up to the shooting was not immediately available.
“The trauma that this man has inflicted on his family, community, law enforcement, first responders, and all the rest of us is unspeakable,” David Gast, the chief prosecutor in Clermont County, said during an arraignment hearing on Friday.
“There has been a full admission in this case; the case is still new, and we’re still discovering facts. But the evil horror of what we know is impossible to process,” he added.
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