Officials are hunting for 23-year-old Aaron Lawson whom is a ‘person of interest’ in the attacks
Three people were found fatally shot and a fourth person was discovered stabbed and critically wounded at a pair of residences in southeast Ohio.
Authorities on Thursday were hunting for 23-year-old Aaron Lawson, whom they called a ‘person of interest’ in the attacks.
Deputies found the bodies of three adults in a house trailer in an unincorporated area of Lawrence County at about 7:30pm Wednesday, the sheriff’s office said.
A fourth adult was found stabbed in the head and neck about a quarter mile away at the residence of a relative of the shooting victims. That person was flown to a hospital in Huntington, West Virginia.
Earlier, police were searching for a missing eight-year-old boy who lived at one of the homes.
One of two Ironton, Ohio, homes where relatives were found shot and stabbed
The youngster, Devin Holston, lived at the second residence, but has since been found.
Lawrence County Sheriff Jeffery Lawless told the Ironton Tribune that investigators haven’t determined whether the boy was at the home during the attack.
Earlier on Thursday, the sheriff’s office was searching for eight-year-old Devin William Andrew Holston. He has since been found
Lawless told the newspaper that all those involved were ‘related in some way.’
Around 12:30 a.m. Thursday, deputies spotted Lawson in a blue truck in Ironton, about 15 miles south of where the victims were found, the sheriff said.
Deputies chased Lawson before he crashed his vehicle into a ditch and ran into the woods, the sheriff said.
None of the dead or injured has been identified. The sheriff’s office said releasing further information would compromise the investigation.
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is assisting Lawrence County in the investigation.
Lawless said schools in the Rock Hill district are closed Thursday because of the attacks.
The initial report about the slayings – violence against multiple people found at trailers belonging to related residents – recalled details from a still-unsolved homicide case that rattled rural southern Ohio last year.
A spokeswoman for the Ohio attorney general’s office said Thursday that investigators have no indication of a connection between the cases.
The deaths on Wednesday occurred roughly 40 miles southeast of the Piketon area, where eight people from the Rhoden family were found shot to death in four homes in April 2016.