Chad Doerman, Clermont County, Ohio dad shoots and kills 3 young sons after shooting at family, including step daughter and the boys’ mother.
An Ohio father has been charged with the murder of his own three young sons, following an underage girl running down the road, Thursday afternoon, screaming, ‘her father was killing everyone.’
Chad Doerman, 32, of Monroe Township, was arrested and charged with three counts of aggravated murder in the deaths of his sons ages 3, 4 and 7. Doerman is being held without bond at the Clermont County Jail and was scheduled to be arraigned in court Friday morning.
The shooting was first reported about 4:15 p.m. Thursday at a Clermont County home a home in a rural, wooded area in Monroe Township, about 25 miles southeast of Cincinnati. An unknown woman called 911 screaming that ‘her babies had been shot,’ officials with the Clermont County Sheriff’s office said in a news release. Three minutes later, a separate caller who had driven by the scene told the 911 call taker that they’d seen an underage girl running down the road saying ‘her father was killing everyone.’
‘My stepfather is shooting everyone in my household.’
Speaking to WLWT, local woman, Misty Hawley, recalled witnessing a teen girl running down a road along with a lab dog, screaming, ‘Call 911, call 911,’ adding, ‘My stepfather is shooting everyone in my household.’
Responding sheriff’s deputies found the father sitting on a step outside the family residence.
Deputies also found the three boys unresponsive in the yard with gunshot wounds. They tried life-saving measures until Monroe Fire/EMS arrived, but the boys died at the scene.
The boys’ mother, a 34-year-old woman, was also outside the home when deputies arrived, with a gunshot wound to the hand. EMS transported her to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, where Clermont County Sheriff Robert Leahy informed her that her boys had died.
‘He was a fun-loving guy.’
The sheriff’s office said there was no sign of forced entry into the home and investigators are not looking for additional suspects. Doerman cooperated with officials during his arrest, according to Clermont County Chief Deputy Chris Stratton.
The bodies of the boys were taken to the Hamilton County Coroner’s Office for autopsies.
Appearing in court on 16 June, the father admitted to the shootings after ‘several months’ of planning, court documents show.
The alleged killer’s father, Keith Doerman, expressed his shock and heartbreak in an interview with CourtTV, saying he believes his son ‘just snapped’.
‘I don’t know if it was financial, I don’t know if it was mental, I don’t know if it was work-related. I don’t know,’ Keith Doerman said. ‘I can’t talk to him.’
He acknowledged that Chad Doerman had been charged over a domestic violence incident in 2010 – with the case later dismissed – but said that was a misunderstanding.
‘He wasn’t that type of person,’ the shooter’s father stated. ‘He was a fun-loving guy.’
Chad Doerman is set to appear in court for a preliminary hearing on 26 June.
