REUTERS

COPLEY TOWNSHIP (OHIO) SEVEN people were shot to death on Sunday before police killed the alleged gunman in a small town near Akron, Ohio, police and town officials said.

One official said the dead included two high school students.

The community, Copley Township, has about 14,000 people and is 40 miles/60 km south of Cleveland.

A man first gunned down five people in one area, then killed two others elsewhere before police shot the suspected shooter and killed him, Copley Police Chief Michael Mier told reporters.

After locating several victims, police spotted the suspect and pursued him before “he engaged the officers in gunfire,” Mier said.

A female survivor was taken to a hospital in Akron.

The incident occurred around 11 am local time, when police dispatchers received calls reporting gunshots. One was from a female who said her boyfriend was involved, Mier said.

“We understand that at some point in time the shooter was chasing somebody,” he said.

Police have not commented on how the victims are connected, the shooter’s motive, or released the victims’ identities in what Mier said was a difficult case to solve.

“Our job is extremely complicated right now.

Fortunately, we have a lot of help. The crime scene is being treated like any other — it’s a little unusual in that it is so large and involves multiple locations,” Mier said.

He provided no details on the dead, and did not mention the ages of any victims.

Although one police source separately confirmed reports an 11-year-old was among those shot, Copley police reached later by Reuters declined to give any information on that or other details.

Police said a news conference would be held at noon on Monday. Names of the victims were being withheld until all their families could be notified, Township Trustee Scott Dressler said. He said two high school students were among the dead.

Akron police and other agencies were assisting in the case, with a number of officers still on hand late on Sunday and various streets blocked off.

Neighbours in Copley Township were trying to piece together the violence that erupted in their quiet, upscale Law enforcement officers at the scene of a shooting, in Copley, Ohio, on Sunday.