Kirkersville gunman identified as Utica man
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, two employees of the Pine Kirk Care Center nursing facility and the suspected shooter are dead.
Attorney General Mike DeWine said the shooter apparently took two hostages before engaging with the police chief. When the chief was shot, the hostages ran, according to law enforcement.
Advocate news partner 10TV as well as information from the 911 call identified the shooter as Thomas Hartless, 43, of Utica. Law enforcement sources have not independently confirmed that name to The Advocate, however. Hartless had previously 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.
