Authorities have released the harrowing 911 calls made by neighbours of an Ohio man accused of fatally shooting his three children with a rifle.
Chad Doerman, 32, was arrested in Clermont County and charged with murdering his three sons, aged seven, four, and three, in the shocking incident that prosecutors have described as “evil horror.” According to law enforcement, Mr Doerman allegedly shot the boys execution-style and wounded his wife on the hand during the Thursday (15 June) carnage.
Mr Doerman’s 15-year-old stepdaughter managed to escape the violence and asked neighbours to call emergency responders. In chilling 911 calls released this week and obtained by DailyMail.com, neighbours described to dispatchers the harrowing scene as the distressed teen refused to get to safety, instead running towards the fire department herself to get help.
“She said that her stepfather is killing everybody in her house ... I asked her to get in the car with me but she said she couldn’t leave her family, I think she ran to the fire department,” an unnamed female told the 911 operator.
“I was down that road but I was afraid that I was going to get shot myself if I interacted with her face to face. So I’m about three houses down. But [now] she’s waiting in the corner, I’m not sure what she’s doing but I can still see her waiting down the corner.”
A teen ran to neighbours asking for help after her stepfather allegedly opened fire on her younger siblings— (GoFundMe )
Moments before the neighbour alerted authorities, the children’s mother had placed a call, screaming that “her babies had been shot,” reported ABC News.
When Clermont County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to the home in Monroe Township, they found the suspect calmly sitting on a step outside with a rifle in hand.
“I’m sober, I’m not trying to fight you,” Mr Doerman can be heard saying on bodycam video obtained by ABC.
He then proceeded to give bizarre warnings to the arresting deputy about the family dog and instructed the pet to go back inside the home.
Over the ambulance sirens, the deputies’ commands and noise from the barking dog, the children’s mother is also heard screaming: “You took my life from me. My life.”
The boys’ bodies were found in the yard of the residence.
“All life-saving measures were unsuccessful and all three gunshot victims succumbed to their injuries while on scene,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. “A fourth gunshot victim, later identified as an adult female age 34, was also located outside of the residence.
Chad Doerman has been charged with three counts the murder in the killings of her three sons, aged sevem four and three— (Clermont Sheriff’s Office )
“The female sustained what appeared to be a single gunshot wound to her hand [and was] non-life threatening.”
The alleged killer’s father, Keith Doerman, expressed his shock and heartbreak in an interview with CourtTV, saying he believes his son “just snapped”. However, prosecutors have stated in court filings that Mr Doerman is believed to have planned the shootings for at least several months.
Neighbour Richard Kincannon told ABC affiliate WCPO that Mr Doerman “yell[ed] all the time” and mistreated his wife.
“He was angry every day,” Mr Kincannon told the station. “There wasn’t a day he didn’t yell at his wife and kids out there ... I still see the babies ... that’s all I see when I come out here.”
Prosecutors said Mr Doerman has confessed to the killings, which he allegedly planned for “several months”— (ABC/Screenshot )
The little boys’ aunt has created a GoFundMe page to help their mother cover funeral costs as she reels from the tragedy.
“Nothing will make this better, it will never be okay,” she wrote. “This loss is unimaginable but we’re choosing to remember the boys for the wonderful babies they are.”
Mr Doerman has reportedly confessed to the crimes, prosecutors said during an arraignment hearing on Friday (16 June).
The boy’s aunt said in the description of a GoFundMe page that the family is choosing to remember them for “the wonderful babies they are”— (Rachel Brown/Facebook )
“The trauma that this man has inflicted on his family, community, law enforcement, first responders, and all the rest of us is unspeakable,” David Gast, the chief prosecutor in Clermont County, said. “There has been a full admission in this case, the case is still new, we’re still discovering facts. But the evil horror of what we know is impossible to process.
“In an act of incomprehensible cruelty, the father that stands before you lined up his three young boys and executed them in his own home with a rifle. In an act of desperation, the mother at some point grabbed the gun the father was wielding to attempt to protect them.”
Mr Doerman is set to appear in court for a preliminary hearing on 26 June. He is being held on $20m bond at the Clermont County Jail.
