Canton police were called just before 2 p.m. to 529 Smith Avenue NW. Four bodies were found inside.

CANTON The 911 caller told the police dispatcher that he and his wife were in a Smith Avenue NW home where four people and a dog had been shot and "nobody was moving."

"Do you know who (the shooter) was?" asked the dispatcher.

"Yes," the man answered, providing a first name. "He's currently laying in the house. ... he was my sister's ex-boyfriend or something."

He said a gun was laying by the dead man.

Minutes after that call at 1:40 p.m. Thursday, police found the bodies of two men and two women with apparent gunshot wounds inside the home at 529 Smith Ave. NW. The gunman had also shot to death a Siberian husky.

A bullet hole could be seen through a front window.

Police Capt. David Kurzinsky said he believes the shooting arose from a domestic situation, and that the gunman was among the deceased. He said police did not believe the gunman had any accomplices.

Police were not releasing the names of the victims until at least Friday so the county coroner's office could notify family members, Kurzinsky said. He said he could not confirm the relationships of the victims to each other.

Police immediately took witnesses, apparently including the man who made the 911 call, to police headquarters downtown to be interviewed. Officers allowed the motor of a truck in the driveway, owned by one of the witnesses, to run for more than two hours before turning it off as it was part of the crime scene.

Neighbors said four people lived in the home. A couple: a man perhaps in his late 60s and a woman who was about 50, her daughter who was in her early 20s and the daughter's son, about 2 or 3 years old.

Kurzinsky would not discuss the status of the child, but he said no children were injured.

"It really hurts"

A distraught Jim Hermann, of Uhrichsville, arrived at the home later Thursday. He identified himself as the ex-husband of the older woman.

"It really hurts," Hermann told reporters. "I know nothing about what happened. ... I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm in shock right now ... It's a little too hard to take right now."

Kurzinski said during his 29 years with the Canton police department, it was the only case he could recall where four people were killed in one shooting.

Several officials appeared at the scene including Police Chief Bruce Lawver; Assistant Stark County Prosecutor Dennis Barr, the chief of the criminal division; and Councilman Greg Hawk, D-1.

"It's tragic that this happened. It appears to be a domestic dispute that really went wrong, so I'm really sorry this happened," said Hawk.

As several residents watched from sidewalks and porches, both investigators in the Stark County Coroner's office Harry Campbell and Rick Walters along with Deputy Coroner Renee Robinson arrived to examine the bodies. Campbell said his office would perform autopsies.

The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation sent a crime scene truck with a specialist to preserve evidence.

At least two dogs and a cat were removed from the home. Robinson, a dog owner, found a frightened puppy that had been hiding behind a dresser and said she might take it home temporarily.

Shock

Glenda Olivia, 31, a next-door neighbor, said the young woman had a loud argument with a boyfriend outside the home on Saturday. She said otherwise, she never had any problems with the family.

Amanda Gates said she saw the older man walk his dogs everyday at 8:20 a.m. when she was going to work. She said she didn't know his name and never engaged the family in conversation.

"It's horrible," she said, citing another shooting that took place on Arlington Avenue NW recently. "It's so close to home. ... it's crazy."

Melissa Ford, 20, of Canton, who lived across the street and wasn't home during the shootings, said she saw the older man play with his grandson in their yard and throw balls at each other.

"It's devastating to know that it could happen so close to home and you couldn't do anything to prevent it," Ford said.

James Clark, 67, an Air Force veterans, who often stayed at his girlfriend's home across the street, said he occasionally chatted with the older man. He said the man told him he was an Army veteran. He flew an American flag and black POW/MIA flag in the front of his home.

"He was a nice, pleasant fellow. Awfully proud of his military career," noted Clark. "Never would have expected this to happen to these people."

911 CALL

Neighbors stood by on area porches watching as police and crime scene investigators moved in and out of house throughout the day.

Repository writer Lori Monsewicz contributed to this report.