Shooter at large after eight killed in Ohio

Eight members of a family, including a mother sleeping in a bed with her 4-day-old baby next to her, were fatally shot in the head on Friday, leaving their rural town reeling while a manhunt was launched for whoever’s responsible.

Three children, including the newborn, survived the grisly killings, which left seven adults and a teenage boy dead in four homes in Pike County, Attorney General Mike DeWine and Pike County Sheriff Charles Reader said. The economically distressed county in the Appalachian Mountain region has 28,000 residents and is 128 kilometres east of Cincinnati.

DeWine said there were no indications that any of the dead killed themselves, and Reader said if the shooter or shooters are at large, they should be considered armed and “extremely dangerous.”

Some of the victims were in bed, indicating they were shot while they were sleeping, authorities said.