COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Columbus police said they are trying to determine why a man fatally shot a couple and their 7-year-old son and critically wounded their 12-year-old daughter.
“I don’t know if this was a home invasion, if he was let into the house, if they knew the suspect,” said Columbus police Sgt. Rich Weiner. Those are “the questions that the investigator is going to be asking.”
The suspect, Barry Kirk, 50, was shot by three officers Monday evening after a short chase outside a house on the city’s west side. Kirk, who lived near the slain family, later died in a hospital.
Killed were John Anderson II, 31; Christina Anderson, 30; and their son Landon Anderson, 7. The couple’s daughter was taken to Columbus Children’s Hospital in critical condition. She was not identified.
Weiner said all the victims suffered multiple gunshot wounds. Columbus fire personnel pronounced the couple and the boy dead at the scene.
Police were responding to a report of a shooting shortly after 5 p.m. when they saw an armed suspect. They shot him after a foot chase, Weiner said. He didn’t know if Kirk and the officers exchanged gunfire. A handgun was found nearby, he said. A fifth person was taken from the house uninjured, he added.
Jeff Drown, who described himself as a family friend, said John Anderson had lived in the neighborhood for about 10 years and was a hard worker who had just started a pavement sealing business. Anderson was friendly and always willing to help people, he said.
“He’s just a good kid,” said Drown, 51, of Columbus. “He don’t get into trouble. He don’t bother nobody. He just raised his family. And now he’s gone.”
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(Photo Source: AP)
