8 Dead In Ohio Shooting Rampage

[Jerri Blank]

Eight dead, including gunman, in Ohio shooting spree

(CNN) -- Seven people, including an 11-year-old child, were shot and killed in a small town in northeastern Ohio on Sunday in a rampage that ended when police killed the suspected gunman, authorities said.

The shootings occurred shortly before 11 a.m. in Copley Township, about seven miles west of Akron, according to the Copley Police Department.

According to a news release from the department, the shootings began at one house where the gunman shot his girlfriend, continued when the shooter ran to an adjacent house where he shot five people, then went on as he chased two other people "through some backyards" before hitting one.

"The shooter then went to another home ... where two other persons he had chased sought refuge. He entered the home, shot one victim and exited the home," the news release said.

At that point, a Copley police officer and a former officer who was in the area encountered the shooter who "engaged the officer and the citizen in gunfire and (the shooter) was shot and killed."

A total of eight people were shot by the suspect, police said, with seven killed and one wounded. That victim was hospitalized but the person's condition was not known Sunday night.

A woman who lives near the scene of the shootings described how one of the gunman's would-be victims fled.

"Somebody knocked on my door and a woman was at my porch, hiding on my porch," Brenda McCrady told CNN affiliate WJW.

When McCrady opened the door, the woman ran inside and told McCrady, "somebody had shot her husband point blank in the head. ... And then she started screaming, 'My son, my son, my 11-year-old son.' "

Authorities said one victim was 11 years old.

The identities of the victims are being withheld pending notification of kin, the Summit County Medical Examiner's Office said.

Residents of the area where the shootings occurred held a candlelight vigil Sunday evening, according to WJW. One neighbor said several of the victims were from two families who had lived side by side for years.
Another neighbor said residents were shocked and baffled by the shooting and would likely never get a full explanation.

"The killer's gone. We'll never know," the neighbor said.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/08/07/ohio.shooting/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

[Aslan]

What in the world??

Seriously, what is the 'breaking point' for people like this? He shoots his gf and then decides to randomly kill a crapload of other people?
I guess he figured he had nothing to lose.

You know, humanity would be better off if only it were filled with people who appreciated the gift that is life and just iced themselves before deciding it was their fucking right to revoke it from others.

and yes. I am wearing my Captain Obvious cape right now thankyouverymuch

[Ninja0980]

http://www.ohio.com/news/local/hundr...ctims-1.228812

Article lists the names of the victims. So senseless...

[Dakota Valkyrie]

A gunman went on a rampage Sunday morning, killing seven people in three locations before being killed in an exchange of gunfire with police.

Copley police Chief Michael Mier said five people were found shot to death outside a home on Goodenough Avenue, two people were killed at separate locations on Schocalog Road and the shooter also was killed.
[...]

Neighbors said the alleged shooter was the longtime boyfriend of Scott’s aunt, Becky Dieter, who is believed to be at an area hospital.

Neighbors knew only the alleged shooter’s first name.
[...]

Gilbert and Nancy Elie, who live next door to the shooting scene, said they were in their basement recreation room when they heard noises and went upstairs to investigate.

They heard a woman moaning and asking for help, Nancy Elie said.

She said they saw Russell and Gudrun Johnson, whom they had known for about 10 years since they moved onto the street, lying in the driveway where they had been shot.

Gilbert Elie said he ventured outside to check on the woman and saw two more people in a black Chevrolet minivan who also had been shot. Another female was lying over a teenage girl, as if trying to protect her, Gilbert Elie said. He said he believes they were dead, too.

Gilbert Elie yelled to his wife to call 911.

“I said, ‘Call the police. Get them out here. These people are laying here, dead,’ ” Gilbert Elie said.

He said Becky Dieter, who lives in a house between his home and the driveway where the people were killed, came out of her home and asked him what was happening.

“I was talking to her when her boyfriend came out of the house behind her and shot her three or four times,” Gilbert Elie said.

He said he took refuge from the shooter. “I peeked out from behind the car and saw her fall off the porch and down the steps,” he said.

He then heard police arrive and heard people running behind the houses through the woods and more shots being fired.
[...]

Copley police received a 911 call at 10:56 a.m. Sunday reporting several gunshots fired on Goodenough Avenue, Mier said.

A second 911 call came from a female who indicated her boyfriend was involved in the shooting, the chief said.

After locating several victims on Goodenough, police spotted a suspect and chased him to Schocalog Road, where the chief said “he engaged the officers in gunfire and the suspect has been killed as well.”

Mier said a motive for the shootings is not known.

“Our job is extremely complicated,” the chief said.

The Associated Press is reporting that the shooting followed a family argument.

Early Sunday afternoon, Mier said a ninth person — a female — survived the shooting and was in intensive care at an area hospital. At a news conference later in the afternoon, Copley Sgt. Eric Goodwin said there were two victims who were hospitalized. No details were available.

http://www.ohio.com/news/local/gunma...mself-1.228689

[Aslan]

So he was a jilted boyfriend.
Boofreakinghoo

Go listen to Morrissey and cry you absolute wimp of a human being.

[Jerri Blank]

It sounds like Becky Dieter (girlfriend to shooter) is one of the survivors but the news isn't reporting her condition. The one report says five were related - 3 generations of people!

So heartbreaking, I just can't wrap my head around it.

[Dakota Valkyrie]

SHithead ID'd

Police have identified the suspect of the shooting rampage that occurred in Copley Township on Sunday.

Michael Hance, 51, of Copley Township, is believed to be the man responsible for shooting eight people, killing seven of them, and then shooting at police before they shot and killed him, according to Copley police.

Hance was the live-in boyfriend of 49-year-old Rebecca Dieter at 2389 Goodenough Dr., in Copley, detective Joe Krunich said during a press conference Monday at about 12:25 p.m. Dieter was transported to a local hospital and is currently in the intensive care unit, where her condition has not yet been released.

“We have no idea what prompted this incident whatsoever,” Krunich said.

Hance had no previous arrest record, Krunich said.

Police said that Hance had two different handguns during the shooting spree.

http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/loc...medium=twitter

Horror: I have no other word for it. He hunted this kid down.

Police said 51-year-old Michael Hance tracked down an 11-year-old boy where he was hiding in a basement and killed him in front of another child.

NewsChannel5’s Dan Haggerty talked with a woman named Monique, who’s sister lives at 1219 Schocalog Avenue. Her sister, Melody, saw 11-year-old Scott Dieter running through the neighborhood and called him into her home to hide from Hance.

The child ran to the basement to hide with Melody’s 9-year old son. They turned out the lights.

The family locked the doors, but that apparently did not stop the gunman. He shot holes in the locks and broke the glass to get inside.

Monique said Hance held a gun to Melody’s head, demanding to know where the boy was. When she would not tell him, he searched the house, and went down to the dark basement with a gun in one hand and a penlight in the other.

The gunman found the boys, and killed Scott Dieter without saying a word, then left.

http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/loc...-child-witness

Among the dead, Copley-Fairlawn High School student Autumn Johnson, 16, and another 16-year-old student whose name is not being released until her family is notified.

Autumn's father, Bryan Johnson, 44, along with her grandparents Russell Johnson, 67, and Gudrun Johnson, 64, were also shot and killed by Hance.

Police said the Johnsons and Hance were neighbors. Hance lived in a home on Goodenough Avenue only for about eight or nine months with his girlfriend of more than two decades, Rebecca Dieter. They took over the Copley home after Rebecca's parents died.

Craig Dieter, 51, and his son, Scott Dieter, 11, were in town from Kentucky to visit Rebecca Dieter, 49, and attend a family reunion. Both were murdered. Meanwhile, Rebecca is in the ICU at a local hospital after being shot multiple times by Hance.

http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/loc...ooting-rampage

[redsaid]

Fuckin pussy

[TheMorningStar]

The final victim of the rampaging Ohio gunman who killed seven people was an 11-year-old boy he hunted down, killing him in a neighbor's basement where he was hiding.

The gunman was identified today as Michael Hance, 51.
All but one of his victims were also identified today with most of them being relatives of his girlfriend, Rebecca Dieter, who were in town from Kentucky for a family reunion they were planning on attending later in the day.
Rebecca Dieter was the only survivor of Sunday's shooting rampage. Police said she suffered multiple gunshot wounds.
Hance became the eighth casualty when he was killed by police officer.

It appears that the gunman then pursued at least two people through neighboring backyards, Bryan Johnson, 44, and little Scott Dieter.
Police said the two split up and run in different directions. Hance chose to keep pursuing Bryan Johnson, who he quickly shot and killed. Hance then doubled back and went hunting for the boy, who had sought protection in a neighbor's house.

A woman had let Scott Dieter into her house and hid with him in her basement along with her own children and boyfriend, in an effort to protect him. Police say Hance forced his way into the basement and shot the child, but did not attempt to hurt anyone else.

While Hance was forcing his way into the home, a 911 call from the woman recorded the family's terror. In the call, a child can be heard crying in the background and the woman cries, "We are so scared," as the shooter enters her house.
After shooting Scott Dieter, Hance exited the house where he was confronted by a police officer and a civilian who was a former police officer. Mier said that the officer asked Hance to drop his weapon, but shot him when Hance refused to comply.
Mier said that everything indicates that it was the police officer who shot and killed the gunman.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/ohio-gunman...ry?id=14255204

[TheMorningStar]

Michael Hance’s cold-blooded killing of such a young victim after stalking seven other people on a tidy suburban Akron street named Goodenough Avenue was, neighbors said, the culmination of a family and neighborhood dispute over a home that once belonged to his girlfriend’s parents.

Hance, 51, had no criminal record before the killings late Sunday morning and his death in a shootout with police in Copley, where a flag flew at half-staff yesterday outside the home where the carnage began.

Hance had recently become angry over residents’ comments about the property, where he lived with his girlfriend, Becky Dieter, said neighbor Carol Eshelman. About a month ago, Hance’s next-door neighbor Gudrun “Gerdie’’ Johnson asked Hance to clean up the property, which included a broken-down car on blocks.


Johnson, 64, was killed in the attack, along with her husband, 67-year-old Russell Johnson; their 44-year-old son Bryan Johnson and his daughter Autumn, 16; Becky Dieter’s brother, Craig Dieter, and his 11-year-old son, Scott; and an unidentified girl who was slain while in a parked car with Autumn outside the Johnsons’ home.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/ar...neighbors_say/

[Dakota Valkyrie]

Police identified the final victim from an Ohio shooting spree that left eight people dead as investigators looked for answers in a rampage that devastated a quiet suburban community.

Amelia Shambaugh, 16, was visiting a friend and sitting in a parked car when they were both killed Sunday morning, Copley Township Police Chief Michael Mier said Tuesday.

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/...g_8610595.html

Neighbors on Hance:

Before moving to a home on Goodenough Drive in Copley Township, the site where the shooting spree started, Hance lived with his longtime girlfriend Rebecca Dieter in a home in Akron. Dieter and Hance had been together for about 20 years, neighbors said, before he shot and critically wounded her. Dieter remains hospitalized.

Their Minota Avenue home was facing foreclosure, public records show, and about a year ago Dieter moved to Copley Township into a home previously owned by her mother. They moved into the house after Dieter’s mother died, neighbors said.

Hance was not happy about moving, neighbors said, and kept most of his belongings at the house and would spend time there working on cars in the back.

They described Hance as a “good guy,” but some also said he had a “bizarre look in his eye.”

He would occasionally sleep on top of his van in the driveway, sit in a kayak in the front yard, or wear a strange mask outside. However, he was also helpful at times, as one neighbor recalled a time when Hance came out of the house in a bathrobe to help push somebody’s car out of a snow drift.

http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/loc...wnship-shooter

[Ninja0980]

PIty he didn't suffer longer...

[Dakota Valkyrie]

On August 7, Melonie Bagley's kind heart and motherly instincts thrust her, along with her three young children, into the middle of the Copley Township shooting spree.

The 28-year-old mother heard gunfire and screaming outside of her home on Schocalog Road. She looked outside and saw 11-year-old Scott Dieter running towards her home yelling for help.

"We didn't know him. He didn't know us. But he came to our door, so I let him in," Bagley said.

She also spotted the gunman, Michael Hance, trailing behind Scott by just a few seconds. What she didn't know was that Hance had already shot seven people, killing six of them including Scott's father, Craig Dieter.

Bagley said her mother's boyfriend, Gary, locked the front door and they hurried to the basement, turned off the lights and hid Scott.

Bagley's three children, 9-year-old Dae-Shawn, 3-year-old Destany, and 1-year-old Arrieona were also forced to the basement. While they sat in darkness, they heard more gunfire outside their home.

"All of us were praying, 'God help us,'" Bagley said.

But Hance fired shots into the front door, burst inside and kicked in the basement door.

Suddenly, Bagley was face-to-face with the gunman, who pointed a gun to her head and spoke.

"He just asked where the little boy was when we were in the basement and he had the gun to my head. He was just asking, 'Where's the little boy? I know he's here,'" Bagley recalled.

Still trying to protect Scott, Bagley told Hance she didn't know where the boy was. But, Hance had a flashlight on a key chain and spotted Scott. Bagley grabbed her two girls, ran for the steps and yelled for Dae'Shawn and Scott to follow.

She only made it to the second step when her worst nightmare came true and she heard an awful sound.

"I just heard a gunshot and I just knew right then that he was gone," Bagley said.

Scott, the 11-year-old boy Bagley tried so desperately to protect, was murdered in her basement.
[...]

With the tragedy almost three weeks behind them, Bagley feels blessed her family is alive.

"For the life of me, I don't know why he didn't kill us, but I know God had a big role in it," Bagley said.

Her heart continues to ache for the Dieter family as she re-plays that horrific day in her mind.

"If we could re-live that day, I would still open the door because he could have died by himself. If that was my son or daughter or anybody, I would be at ease to know that somebody let him come in and he didn't die by himself," Bagley said.

http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/loc...-didnt-kill-us

[Nell]

"For the life of me, I don't know why he didn't kill us, but I know God had a big role in it," Bagley said.

God only wanted the one kid dead that day.

[Angelinfl]

Is something being put in the water, soda, or booze supply or has Common Sense really died. People have no self-control, self-image and can't they think ahead of the consequences of their actions.

I hope all of you with children are teaching them values, respect and what consequences are for actions. If not and you let your kids get away with "murder" now.... I pity the world they will create.... it won't be one I'd want to live in.

[Hellsbells]

Family suggests Copley gunman had untreated mental issues

COPLEY TWP.: Michael Hance would pop vitamins like candy, convinced he could stave off cancer.

He took copious notes on his diet, filling yellow legal pads and documenting his research into the deadly disease. He told his friends he could rid the world of cancer, if only he had the time. After all, doctors knew the cure, they were just hiding it.

Other days, he could be found outside his Goodenough Avenue home sitting in his truck, doing nothing. Just sitting and staring. Sometimes, when he chose to speak, he’d point to stained rooftops as proof that airplanes were polluting Copley Township.

Friends say he didn’t like guns or water. In fact, his fear of drowning led him to bring his own canoe to construction jobs nowhere near a lake or river. There were times he would sit for hours in a kayak floating on the lawn outside his house.

There were other occasions when Hance, 51, would slide tiny skintight shorts up his thin 6-foot-3 frame to work on his beloved pickup truck. Or he’d just walk outside half-naked, oblivious to the kids getting on a school bus.

Some thought he was schizophrenic. Others were sure he was depressed or at least bipolar. They all agreed Hance needed help. But no one sensed a threat and certainly no one saw Aug. 7 coming.

On Friday, Copley police released the final 268-page investigative report that recounts the violent, 10-minute rampage Hance undertook against his family and neighbors that left eight people including him dead. Despite the mound of reports and interviews, police have been unable to determine the most elusive question remaining: Why?

http://www.ohio.com/news/break-news/...ssues-1.239054

Read on