This article is from the source 'independent' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/pike-county-seven-people-reported-dead-as-police-hunt-ohio-gunman-a6996611.html

The article has changed 4 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 2 Version 3
Pike County: Eight people dead after 'execution-style shootings' Pike County: Eight family members killed, gunman remains at large in Ohio
(about 5 hours later)
At least eight people are dead, among them two children, after a series of execution-style” shootings in Ohio. Police said the situation no longer involved an “active shooter” and there was speculation the gunman was among the dead. At least eight family members are dead, including seven adults and one 16-year-old, after a series of “execution-style” shootings across a rural town in Ohio. Police believe at least one suspect is still at large.
Reports said that seven of the dead appeared to be members of the same family and had been killed at three different homes in Pike County, eighty miles from the city of Columbus, on Friday morning. An eighth body was subsequently found at another address.  Police said that the killings took place at four separate homes across Pike County on Friday. Three children survived the shootings, including a 4-day-old newborn, who was sleeping near its dead mother.
The dead include five adults and two juveniles, said Dan Tierney, spokesman for Ohio’s state attorney general’s office. At least two babies and several children survived. “This is a horrible, horrible tragedy," Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine told reporters at press conference, adding that it appeared the Rhoden family was specifically targeted.
Attorney General Mike DeWine told local radio station WLW: “We just within the last few minutes discovered another body in another house, so that takes us up to four houses with now a total of eight bodies so far.” "Obviously we have one person who is armed and dangerous and there may be more, two or three," Attorney General DeWine said. "We don't really know how many people we are talking about.”
Of the children found alive at the main site, Mr DeWine said: “Some of them were very, very young. You had at least one or two babies.” Phil Fulton, pastor of the nearby Union Hill Community Church, said that the mother and children previously attended church services at his house of worship.
Authorities have not identified those killed, but neighbours and relatives said the area closed off by police was occupied by a large family split among three different trailers, the Associated Press reported. “It was a mother, her former husband, their grown children and some grandchildren too. They all used to attend our church,” he told reporters.
“It was a mother, her former husband, their grown children and some grandchildren, too. They all used to attend our church,” said Phil Fulton, pastor of the nearby Union Hill Community Church.  The mother worked at a nursing home for the elderly, he said. She had just bought a new mobile home near the two existing trailers occupied by her ex-husband and her son, Fulton said. All three trailers are less than a mile apart on Union Mill Road, near Peebles, a town of nearly 2,000 people just 80 miles east of Cincinnati.
The mother worked at a nursing home for the elderly, he said. She had just bought a new mobile home near the two existing trailers occupied by her ex-husband and her son, Mr Fulton said. All three trailers are less than a mile apart. Ohio Governor John Kasich called the reports “tragic beyond comprehension.”
“They were very good people,” a relative of the woman, who did not want to be identified, told the Washington Post. “She was so good with her kids and her grandbaby. We’re just brokenhearted.” The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is assisting the Pike County Sheriff’s Office in the ongoing investigation. Cincinnati’s FBI office also announced that it was closely monitoring the situation.
Ohio Governor John Kasich called the reports “tragic beyond comprehension”. No arrests or motives were clear by late afternoon.
The FBI in Cincinnati confirmed it had offered help to the Pike County Sheriff's Office. Adams County Ohio Valley Schools briefly went on lockdown after the discovery of the bodies was reported.