Holly MatkinMonroe, OH – An Ohio father allegedly lined his three young sons up in the backyard of their home on Thursday evening and executed each of them with a rifle, according to prosecutors.
The boys were just three, four, and seven years old, WXIX reported.
Clermont County Assistant Prosecutor David Gast revealed horrific details about the triple homicide during a hearing before Clermont County Municipal Court Judge Jason Nagel on Friday morning.
Gast said the three young boys were gunned down by their father, 32-year-old Chad Doerman, in the backyard of their home on Laurel Lindal Road on June 15, WXIX reported.
“In an act of incomprehensible cruelty, the father that stands before you lined up his three young boys and executed them in his own home with a rifle,” the assistant prosecutor said.
One of the boys was temporarily able to get away, but Doerman allegedly “hunted that boy down, brought him back to the property and executed him in front of witnesses,” WLWT reported.
Gast said the children’s 34-year-old mother was also shot in her hand when she attempted to save her little boys by grabbing the gun Doerman was wielding.
According a report from the Clermont County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO), the department received a call from a screaming woman shortly before 4:15 p.m. advising that her “babies had been shot,” WXIX reported.
A motorist who happened to be passing by the scene called 911 three minutes later and said a juvenile girl was running down the street telling people that “her father was killing everyone,” investigators said.
Deputies arrived at the scene and found the three unresponsive boys lying on the ground, WXIX reported.
They immediately attempted to deliver life-saving aid until emergency medical personnel arrived, but the children were ultimately pronounced dead at the scene.
Deputies said Doerman was sitting on a step outside his house and was taken into custody without incident, WXIX reported.
The victims’ mother was transported to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center and the girl whom the 911 caller saw running down the road was located and is safe, according to investigators.
Sheriff Steve Leahy said he went to the hospital and personally met with the mother to break the news to her that her little boys did not survive, WXIX reported.
Investigators said Doerman “confessed to planning and carrying out” his sons’ murders for “several months,” according to court documents.
Doerman has been charged with three counts of aggravated murder, WLWT reported.
A motive was not immediately released.
“This is by far the most sickening, horrifying crime I have seen,” Clermont County Prosecutor Mark Tekulve said on Friday, according to WXIX. “I can only imagine the terror that these little boys felt and experienced as their father… their protector was murdering them.”
“We will do our utmost within my office to see this defendant never sees the light of day again,” Tekulve added.
Doerman is being held at the Clermont County Jail on a $20 million bond, WLWT reported.
“The trauma that this man has inflicted on his family, community, law enforcement, first responders, and all the rest of us is unspeakable,” Gast told the court, according to WLWT. “The evil horror of what we know is impossible to process.”
A fundraising campaign established to help the boys’ mother in the wake of her loss has raised more than $20,000 so far.
