COPLEY TOWNSHIP, Ohio Four of the eight people shot and killed this morning in a neighborhood west of Akron were members of one family, according to a neighbor who said she has known the family for years and helped shelter one of them today.
Kim Dietz says the shooter, who lived on Schocalog Road with his girlfriend and her brother, got into a fight with the woman this morning and shot her and her brother, wounding the woman and killing the man.
Hearing the commotion, the patriarch of the family next door went outside and was shot and killed, too.
"Knowing [him], he was going over there to help," she said from her home in the 1000 block of Schocalog Road this afternoon.
Shortly after, the shooter killed this man's wife, a son in his 40's, a 17-year-old granddaughter, and a family friend who was visiting the home, Dietz said.
Dietz knew all this because another of the man's sons arrived at her home after the shooter chased him through another neighbor's home and shot a child there. The son arrived safely at Dietz's home after wading through a swamp, she said.
Copley Police said they shot and killed the suspect after a confrontation, but have not released any names of the victims or the shooter.
Several police departments and a SWAT team are in the area investigating. Many of the roads around the several crime scenes remain closed.
