Three people, including gunman dead in crime spree in Adams, Pike counties

SEAMAN, Ohio (WKRC) - A crime spree that included murder, robbery and arson shook a small town in rural Ohio Friday.

Three people are dead, and another person who was shot is recovering in the hospital.

The suspect was 44-year-old Brandon Carter from just outside of Seaman — about an hour east of Cincinnati. He is now dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

This all started at about 7 a.m. Friday when firefighters responded to a house fire a couple of miles outside of Seaman. Carter lived in the house with his mother. Inside, police would later find a body.

At about 7:30 a.m., the sheriff says Carter entered a Marathon gas station in town and tried to kidnap the female clerk, taking her out the back. As he was taking her, he encountered a man delivering food to the mini-mart. The sheriff says he shot and killed the man, who worked for Hackney Grocery.

As Carter was trying to get the clerk into his pickup truck, she pulled away and began to run. That’s when witnesses say Carter shot her in the back. The clerk was airlifted to UC Medical Center where she is currently in stable condition.

The sheriff says Carter then crossed Highway 32 and held up another gas station. The clerks there told Local 12 he left with $317 and headed east on Highway 32. A sheriff’s deputy spotted him and a pursuit began. The Ohio State Highway Patrol spike-stripped the car in Pike County. They say Carter lost control and drove off the road. That’s when he apparently shot and killed himself.

Ernie Butts and Eddie Geeslin have coffee at the Marathon mini-mart every day. They say they heard the shot that killed the delivery man and saw the attempted kidnapping and shooting.

“Me and Eddie was sitting there in a booth and we got ready to get up and leave. About that time, I heard a 'pop;' just sound like a pop gun going off,” said Butts.

“When we got out,” he continued. “She was trying to break loose from him and he was trying to put her in the passenger side of an old truck. She started running and pleading for a life, and that’s when he up and shot her right in the back...I run over to her, and she was awake and she was saying, ‘Help me, help me!’ So I got my phone out and dialed 911.”

Adams County Sheriff Kimmy Rogers says fighting back was the right thing to do.

“She was putting a pretty good fight. She absolutely did the right thing. If she got in the vehicle with him without putting up a struggle, we would’ve had a different outcome. So, if you’re ever in the situation, do what this young lady did and try to get away,” Rogers said.