Three young boys are dead and their mother wounded after an Ohio man allegedly attempted to annihilate his Clermont County family with a rifle on Thursday.
At approximately 4 p.m., police responded to a report of a shooting on Laurel Lindale Road. Upon arrival, deputies discovered three boys, ages 7, 4, and 3, outside the home, each with fatal gunshot wounds.
The children’s mother was also found outside with a gunshot wound to the hand, according to WLWT-TV. She was transported to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center for treatment, where Clermont County Sheriff Robert Leahy delivered the horrific news of her sons’ deaths.
Alexis, the boys’ remaining older sibling, “escaped the violence,” the outlet reports.
As the police approached, 32-year-old Chad Doerman, later identified as the children’s father, was calmly sitting on the porch, a gun resting by his side. He was arrested at the scene and, after being interviewed by Clermont County detectives, charged with three counts of aggravated murder.
Authorities released bodycam footage of the chilling arrest.
(Video: YouTube)
“You! Show me your hands now!” an officer yelled from across the grassy yard. “Stand up and walk to us! Stand up with your hands up!”
Prior to advancing toward the suspect, one deputy noted, “We’ve got to find cover first. We ain’t no good if we ain’t safe ourselves.”
Weapons drawn, the officers approached Doerman, who remained sitting on the porch with his hands raised.
“Stand up!” an officer demanded again. “Stand the f**k up!”
Finally, an officer grabbed Doerman’s arm and lowered him to the ground where he was quickly placed in handcuffs.
“They’re dead, aren’t they?” a woman can be heard screaming.
“What are you doing, man?” an officer asked Doerman.
“Can I roll over?” he politely replied. “I ain’t going to hurt you. I ain’t going to hurt nobody.”
“I ain’t mad,” Doerman said. “I ain’t nothing.”
The suspect cautioned the police about petting his dog.
“Just don’t reach for him or try to grab him or pet him,” Doerman said. “He won’t bite you.”
When asked again, “What’s going on?” he calmly asked if he could stand up.
“Nothing,” he said. “Can I stand up? It’s kind of uncomfortable.”
As the officers assisted Doerman to his feet and walked him across the yard, the woman could be heard off-camera wailing, “They’re so little!”
Doerman appeared unfazed.
“My daughter, she ran over to the fire department,” he told the officers. “It’s my stepdaughter.”
As he was being marched toward the squad cars, Doerman asked if one of the officers could retrieve his wallet from his back pocket.
“Shut up, dude,” the officer replies. “You have the right to remain silent, so f**king use it.”
On Friday, clad in a bulletproof vest and surrounded by a half dozen deputies, Doerman appeared in court.
WLWT reports:
Doerman’s defense asked for a $75,000 bond saying he had a job, cosigners, and that he was married. Although, it appears the woman he is married to is the victim in the crime.
Prosecutors asked for a $20,000,000 bond, the highest bond they had ever asked of a judge in Clermont County. Judge J.C. Nagel granted the prosecutor’s request.
Speaking during the hearing, Clermont County’s chief prosecutor, David Gast, called the monstrous act — one to which Doerman allegedly confessed — “unspeakable.”
“The trauma that this man has inflicted on his family, community, law enforcement, first responders, and all the rest of us is unspeakable,” he 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,” Gast stated. “In an act of desperation the mother at some point grabbed the gun the father was wielding to attempt to protect them.”
One of the young boys managed to flee, he said, but Doerman “hunted that boy down, brought him back to the property and executed him in front of witnesses.”
According to the prosecutor, Doerman planned the killings.
“I’ve been a lawyer 35 years, this is by far the most sickening horrifying crime I have seen. I can only imagine the terror these little boys felt and experienced,” Clermont County Prosecutor Mark Tekulve said after the hearing concluded. “The mother saw this, you can imagine the immense trauma and terror she experienced and we will do the utmost that this defendant never sees the light of day again.”
Two 911 calls were made to report the shootings. The first was presumably placed by the mother, who screamed that “her babies had been shot.”
The second was made by a passerby who witnessed “a female juvenile” running down the street claiming that “her father was killing everyone.”
The boys’ aunt, established a GoFundMe to “help my sister bury her children.”
“My sister lost her three amazing babies yesterday,” Rachel Brown wrote. “Nothing will make this better, it will never be okay. But please if you can find it in your heart to help relieve the financial burden of this tragedy, please donate. No one should have to go through this.”
In just one day, donors contributed $95,561 — more than $75,000 above the $20,000 goal.
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Melissa Fine is the former executive editor of Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and Poker
Digest magazines. She is a UCLA graduate, news junkie, and dedicated Stargate SG-
1 fan. Melissa currently lives with her dog and two cats in a tiny town in the Sierra
Nevada foothills.
Comment
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.