Police in Westerville, Ohio, were previously sent to home where officers were killed

CLEVELAND – Westerville, Ohio, police were previously called to the home where a man fatally shot two police officers on Sunday. Incident reports showed that the calls were made for three domestic disputes but no arrests were ever made.

Westerville officers Eric Joering, 39, and Anthony Morelli, 54, were killed shortly after noon Saturday in this normally quiet suburb while responding to a 911 hang-up call.

The suspect, 30-year-old Quentin Smith, was shot and wounded by the officers and taken to Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in critical condition Saturday, a Westerville city spokeswoman said. The hospital would not provide updates on his condition Sunday.

A series of 911 calls released by the city of Westerville provide some details about what happened Saturday at a complex of townhomes. Smith lived there with his wife, Candace, and a young daughter.

Westerville police have provided few details about what happened inside the townhome. Westerville Police Chief Joe Morbitzer said at a news conference Saturday that Joering, a 16-year veteran, and Morelli, a 30-year-veteran, were shot immediately upon entering the residence. Columbus police are investigating the shootings.

“The officers gave their lives in defense of others,” Morbitzer said during a news conference Saturday as he fought back tears. He went on to call them “true American heroes.”

After the initial hang-up call at noon, a dispatcher called the number back and reached a woman who was crying and can be heard saying, “won’t let me in.” Officers were then sent to the home. At 12:12 p.m., an officer told a dispatcher that it’s “all quiet right now,” followed by a door knock. At 12:13 p.m., after a dispatcher confirmed contact has been made, a man’s voice can be heard yelling, “We have shots fired.”

Four minutes later, someone, presumably a police officer, tells a dispatcher: “We have two officers down. Child on couch, one at gunpoint.” It’s unclear at what point Smith was shot.

Other 911 calls show that Candace Smith was hiding in bushes in front of the home, pleading for help because her daughter is still inside the home while a dispatcher calmly tells her to stay there.

“Please help,” Candace Smith repeats several times in a call at 12:14 p.m. “He shot the police officers.”

Westerville police had gone to the couple’s townhome for domestic disputes three times since September of last year. Joering and Morelli’s names aren’t listed on those calls.

On Sept. 14, police responded to a call from Candace Smith that her husband was drunk and doing something to her car. A brief narrative from the officers says, “No dispute or argument.” Candace Smith told officers they were separating, and that he left when she told him she was calling police.

“Female has his key so she is not concerned about him coming back,” the report said.

A Nov. 29 report said Candace Smith went to the Westerville police station asking about a protection order. She told officers that Quentin Smith had come home drunk earlier in the week and had “forced himself on her,” the report said. Candace Smith said she had found out that day she had been infected with a sexually transmitted disease, according to the report.

Candace Smith also told officers that her husband had threatened to kill her, their daughter and himself if she left him. She said Smith always carried a gun despite being a convicted felon. Smith was convicted in Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland, of felony burglary and misdemeanor domestic violence charges in 2009 and was sentenced to four years in prison.

Shortly after Candace Smith spoke with police at the Westerville station that day, police went to the home when Quentin Smith called to complain that his wife had locked him out of the house. They were told to stay in separate areas of the home.

On Jan. 20, officers went to the home after Quentin Smith’s mother called police to say the couple was arguing. They told police there weren’t fighting.

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Authorities: 4 victims’ names released in Kentucky shootings

A Kentucky gunman killed his parents, his girlfriend and his girlfriend’s mother in a weekend shooting spree before ending his own life, State Police said Sunday.

State Police Trooper William Petry on Sunday released the victims’ names and their relationships with the presumed shooter, Joseph Nickell.

Nickell’s parents, James and Arlene Nickell, were gunned down Saturday at a residence in the McKenzie Branch area of Flatgap, Kentucky, and Joseph Nickell’s girlfriend, Lindsey Vanhoose, and her mother, Patricia Vanhoose, later were fatally shot at an apartment in nearby Paintsville, Petry said in a statement.

Johnson County Sheriff Dwayne Price said Joseph Nickell’s body also was found at the apartment in what authorities described as a murder-suicide.

“This has been a horrific murder spree,” Price said in a Facebook post Saturday night. “The lives of four innocent victims were taken. The perpetrator then took his own life. There are no words to describe the heartbreak in seeing four lives taken due to the actions of one man. I have worked in law enforcement for 34 years. This is one of the most disturbing acts of violence I have ever seen.”

The statement didn’t specify the ages of Joseph Nickell and the four other victims or give a motive for the shootings, which remain under investigation.

Price said authorities in Paintsville, about 190 miles (300 kilometers) east of Louisville, received a 911 call on Saturday afternoon about a shooting and two victims were found dead in the kitchen of the residence. After receiving a tip on the whereabouts of a suspect’s vehicle, three more bodies, including that of Joseph Nickell, were later found at the apartment complex, Price said.

“As officers, one of our first concerns is for the surviving family members. Our intent is to honor them with as much privacy as possible during their time of grief,” Price said later in another Facebook post. “Working a murder is never easy. Working the murders of four innocent people that are part of your community is even tougher.”

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