4 dead in Ohio nursing home shooting

Four people are dead after a man entered the Pine Kirk Care Center in Kirkersville, Ohio, early this morning and opened fire. Steven Eric DiSario, the town’s police chief, was killed in the incident. Two others killed were employees and the fourth is believed to be the shooter, according to early reports in the Columbus Dispatch.

No residents were injured, according to Licking County Sheriff Randy Thorp. The identities have not yet been released, and police have not speculated on the shooter's motives.

Prior to entering the facility, the shooter apparently took two hostages in a nearby woodland, where Police Chief DiSario tried to intervene, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said in a press conference this afternoon. The hostages were not injured.

The employees at Pine Kirk had never had any active shooter training, the nursing home’s owner, Tom Rosser, told Columbus ABC-6 News in a videotaped interview (as tweeted by ABC6 reporter Lisa Rantala).

The Pine Kirk facility provides 24-hour skilled nursing, rehabilitation and memory care services for 24 residents. Kirkersville is about 25 miles east of Columbus, Ohio.

Pamela Tabar

Pamela Tabar was editor-in-chief of I Advance Senior Care from 2013-2018. She has worked as a writer and editor for healthcare business media since 1998, including as News Editor of Healthcare Informatics. She has a master’s degree in journalism from Kent State University and a master’s degree in English from the University of York, England.