Bethany Bruner

Reporter

KIRKERSVILLE - What started as a typical Friday morning ended in a deadly shooting at a nursing facility in the village of Kirkersville, leaving the police chief and three others, including the shooter, dead.

Licking County Sheriff Randy Thorp said Kirkersville Chief Steven Eric DiSario; Marlina Medrano, a nurse at Pine Kirk Care Center nursing facility; Cindy Krantz, a nurse's aide at the facility; and the suspected shooter are dead.

Attorney General Mike DeWine said the shooter apparently took two other people as hostages before engaging with the police chief. When the chief was shot, the hostages ran, according to law enforcement.

On a 911 call, a man, possibly one of the hostages, can be heard whispering and then later telling the dispatcher he hid his phone underneath his hat. The man can be heard telling someone else, possibly the shooter, that he didn't have to kill anyone.

DiSario had been chief for about three weeks, Thorp said, and was a father of six with a seventh child on the way.

The shooter has been identified as Thomas Hartless, 43, of Utica. Hartless had been arrested for domestic violence and in 2010 pleaded guilty to abduction after taking a Newark woman and holding her in Coshocton County for several hours.

Thorp said Hartless had a prior relationship with Medrano and it "was not a very good relationship." Medrano was listed as a person Hartless was not to have contact with in at least two domestic violence cases in Licking County Municipal Court between December 2016 and March 2017.

Hartless had been in the Licking County Justice Center until April 11, when he was released on probation, according to court records.

The incident began around 6:30 a.m. when the hostages were reportedly taken, according to information on 911 calls obtained by The Advocate.

DiSario had been dispatched to the area of the nursing home on a report of a man with a gun around 7:30 a.m. Friday. The situation escalated shortly after with reports of DiSario being shot and an active shooter inside the nursing home, located at 205 E. Main St. (U.S. 40) in Kirkersville.

DiSario was found outside the building by sheriff's office deputies, who pulled him from the scene Friday morning, Thorp said.

When deputies entered the building, they found Medrano and Krantz deceased inside and the suspected shooter dead "within a close proximity," Thorp said. Hartless is believed to have shot himself and that will likely be confirmed with an autopsy, according to Thorp.

None of the 23 residents at the facility were injured. As deputies cleared the building, residents and employees were found barricaded in several places, Thorp said.

On another 911 call, a female employee is heard telling dispatchers she is in a basement area with several other employees and at least one resident. The dispatcher told the caller she may have to fight for her life.

DiSario responded to the scene from the nearby Kirkersville Police station on a call of a disturbance and a man in the street with a gun.

Thorp said DiSario's last radio traffic was that he had the man in sight.

DiSario was taken to Licking Memorial Hospital, where he died. His body has been taken to the Licking County Coroner's Office for an autopsy.

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The number of shots fired in the incident is not yet known, and if DiSario was able to fire any shots has not been determined. A home across the street reportedly was damaged by a stray bullet, but Thorp said that had not been confirmed to have been part of Friday's incident.

Thorp said deputies loaded DiSario into one of their cruisers, which has been towed from the scene.

Deputies who responded are not believed to have fired any shots, Thorp said.

The bodies of all four individuals have been taken to the Licking County Coroner's Office for autopsies.

Family members stood just outside crime scene tape as the bodies were taken out of the care facility on gurneys, consoling and comforting each other.

It is unclear exactly what caused Hartless to go to Kirkersville Friday morning, but Thorp said Hartless' vehicle was located at the Flying J Truck Stop, about a mile away from the nursing facility.

It is not clear how Hartless got from the truck stop to Kirkersville. Thorp said search warrants had been obtained for that vehicle, as well as Hartless' home on the 300 block of Oakwood Avenue in Utica and another vehicle.

Marvy Swick, who lives next door to the Hartless' home, said she had seen Hartless outside on the porch and knew he had domestic violence charges in the past, as recently as January.

“That poor officer should have never been shot,” she said. “Domestic violence, they think it’s a joke and they smack their hands and they give them a year probation and then let them go do whatever they want. You know what, after one of them? Yeah, maybe. Two, three? There’s a sign that someone’s crazy.”

According to court records, Hartless had been released from jail April 11. He was ordered to have no alcohol, drugs or contact with a woman, the alleged victim.

He had convictions from 2016 and 2017 for domestic violence, all of which were misdemeanors.

Friday's events have shaken the community of Kirkersville, located off Interstate 70 in southern Licking County and home to fewer than 600 people.

The co-owners of the business next door to the police department said they had not yet met the new chief, but had hoped to welcome him into their community.

"He's one of us," they said. "It's still a loss."

A small memorial of flowers and crosses had been started outside the village's police department, which is located about three doors down from the Pine Kirk Care Center.

Thorp said the day was especially tough for law enforcement, saying the deputies who assisted DiSario on the scene were struggling to deal with the morning's events. A crisis team was on the scene to help assist those officers, as well as the residents in the facility and other employees.

At least one of the two or three deputies who initially responded to the scene will be on leave for a few days to process the tragedy they were involved in, Thorp said.

The residents in the facility were taken by squad to area hospitals, including Licking Memorial Hospital.

The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is processing the crime scene and leading the investigation into Friday's incident.

Thorp said he could not recall the last time a law enforcement officer was killed in the line of duty in Licking County.

In January 2016, Danville Police Officer Thomas Cottrell Jr. was shot and killed in the line of duty. Cottrell had ties to Licking County and had graduated from Central Ohio Technical College.