3 in family found slain on Hilltop; suspect dead
A Hilltop couple and their 7-year-old boy were killed — and their older daughter critically injured – when they were shot on Monday inside their home by a man who police later shot and killed.
Sgt. Rich Weiner, spokesman for the Police Division, identified the dead in the home as John E. Anderson II, 31, and Christina Chaffin Anderson, 30, and their 7-year-old son, Landon Anderson.
Their 12-year-old daughter, Makyleigh, also was shot and was in critical condition at Na-
tionwide Children’s Hospital late Monday night.
Police say the family was shot by Barry Kirk, 50, who lived across S. Terrace Avenue from the green house where the Andersons lived.
Kirk died on Monday night at Mount Carmel West after being shot by police as he fled the Anderson home, officers said.
Columbus police detectives are trying to figure out what caused the fatal confrontation.
“We have no motive at this time,” Weiner said. “We’re still trying to figure it out.”
According to Columbus police, a 911 call was made by a woman shortly after 5 p.m. who said that her husband had been shot by an intruder and that the shooter was still in their home.
The call came from the 90 block of S. Terrace Avenue, south of W. Broad Street and north of Olive Street.
The dispatcher said that other gunshots could be heard during the call.
Weiner said that when police arrived, Kirk was running out of the Anderson home and had run back across the street. He was shot multiple times along the side of his house.
Three officers fired their weapons at him and he was hit multiple times, Weiner said. No officers were injured.
A neighbor said she heard at least 20 shots fired.
John Hillyard, 46, who lives on S. Eureka Avenue, said he saw the officers converge on the Anderson house.
The man, later identified as Kirk, then ran from the house and took off around the house’s north corner with police in pursuit.
Hillyard said he couldn’t see what happened next but soon heard multiple shots.
Detectives were able to talk to the 12-year-old daughter, who is expected to make a full recovery, Weiner said.
Stunned family members waited for hours until they were told the grim news.
“I was supposed to pick up the grandkids at six o’clock. There was no six o’clock,” said Kim Cremeans, grandmother of the two children.
The distraught Cremeans screamed over and over: “Why did they shoot my baby? Why would someone go in and murder a family?”
She said she’d just spent a great weekend with the kids. Cremeans said that her son and daughter-inlaw were hard-working people who made taking care of their children their priority.
Jeff Drown, 51, is a longtime friend of John Anderson’s father, who also is named John.
Drown said he has known the younger John Anderson since he was a child.
“He used to go out with me towing. He had grown up to be a good young man,” Drown said.
During the past year, the younger Anderson had started his own driveway blacktop business, which was going well.
A brother, who declined to give his name, said that John Anderson had a number of weapons in the house, but police said there was no evidence he’d fired a gun.
“He was a damn good dude, definitely,” his brother said.