Family shot but children spared
Last month Chris Rhoden, 16, posted on his Facebook page a photograph of a shotgun with the defiant words of a country song:
‘‘I won’t back up. I don’t back down. I’ve been raised up to stand my ground.’’
Now Rhoden is dead, the youngest of eight members of an extended family to have been murdered at the weekend with shots to the head – most of them as they slept – in four homes in rural Appalachia, 145 kilometres east of Cincinnati, Ohio.
One of the victims was a mother sleeping beside her 4-day-old baby, who was spared. Also found unharmed were children aged 6 months and 3 years.
Police in Peebles, Ohio, were scrambling to identify the killer, thought to be still on the loose.
The Rhoden family was large and well known in the area, and 100 relatives had gathered in a church for their own protection.
Brad Garrett, a former FBI agent, said the killer was likely to fit into a category of ‘‘family annihilators’’. ‘‘It’s not uncommon for a shooter like this to go from one house to another house to kill everyone that he thinks has harmed him in some form or fashion,’’ he said.
The first sign of trouble came at 7.53am on Saturday (NZ time) when the sheriff’s office received an emergency call.
While deputies were responding, they were flagged down and directed to two more trailer homes, where five more bodies were found. Later in the day, officials were alerted to a fourth crime scene, where the 16-year-old was found dead.
The quotation used by Chris Rhoden was taken from the song Answer to No One by country singer Colt Ford, in which a ‘‘flag flyin’, bible totin’ son of a gun’’ says ‘‘to hell with anyone who don’t believe in the USA’’.
Also posted on Chris’ Facebook page was a statement urging that the gay pride rainbow flag be banned and the Confederate flag – widely seen as a racist emblem – allowed.
Most, though not all, of the victims were found in bed, and police confirmed the Rhoden family was targeted.
Frankie Rhoden, a maintenance worker, and his fiancee, Hannah Hazel Gilley, were among the dead. Hannah May Rhoden, a nursing assistant and young mother, and Dana Lynn Rhoden were also named. Dana Lynn Rhoden, in her late 30s, had just bought a new mobile trailer home near two other trailers where shootings took place. One was occupied by her former husband and another by her son and his girlfriend.