TIFFIN, OH (WTOL) - A Seneca County sheriff's deputy was shot Tuesday afternoon while responding to a domestic dispute.
"Nobody wants to hear those words over the radio, shots fired and then they hear officer down because everything is racing through your mind, what happened and you don't know how many," explained Seneca County Sheriff Bill Eckelberry.
The incident that resulted in the shooting started around 1:30 p.m. A woman called 911 saying her ex-boyfriend 34-year-old Scott Bloomfield tried to take her from her truck. She was able get out of the truck and ran away between houses before making the call.
Police contacted the Seneca County Sheriff's Office to check Bloomfield's residence on CR-36, but he was not home.
At 2 p.m., the sheriff's office received another call from a residence on North Tecumseh Drive after Bloomfield barged in and stabbed her son, 24-year-old Johnny Reino. She was then able to grab Reino and go to a hospital. Reino is said to be stable.
Police and deputies arrived on scene three minutes later and found the suspect with a Remington 270 bolt action rifle and scope.
Shortly after officers arrived, neighbors recall hearing several gunshots outside their home.
"You heard on a loud speaker, put the gun down, put the gun down, put the gun down," said Jerry Reedy, a neighbor. "They said it three times and then, then you could hear the shots being fired."
Deputy Luke Cantu was hit with gunfire. Bloomfield was also shot by law enforcement and later died.
Veronica Windsor and her son Austin Legg hid under their truck after hearing the shots.
"It sounded directly like right behind my house," explained Windsor. "So I didn't know if I should go right, left, back. You don't know."
"Mom kind of did a wrestling move and threw me kind of behind the truck and then yeah, it was kind of scary," added Legg. "Really scary."
One neighbor says he grabbed his gun because of what he was hearing just outside his home.
"My first thought was he probably doesn't want to come this way," said Reedy.
Cantu was with the department for five years, but only on the road only a few weeks. He is said to be stable and is recovering at St. Vincent Hospital. Neighbors hope for a speedy recovery.
"It was just a weird thing that happened and you know it's an unfortunate thing," said Windsor. "It's nonsense that it happened really, I really don't understand why people do things they do.
Police also confiscated a hunting knife from the home.
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations is leading the investigation and says there is video of the shooting. They will be reviewing that first thing tomorrow. Police aren't releasing names of anyone involved just yet.
