Property dispute apparently sparked shooting rampage

COPLEY, Ohio — A gunman who killed seven people during a weekend rampage in his Ohio neighborhood cornered one of his victims, his girlfriend's 11-year-old nephew, in the basement of a house, ordered out the family sheltering the boy and then shot him, police said Monday.

Michael Hance's cold-blooded killing of such a young victim after stalking seven other people on a suburban Akron street was, neighbors said, the culmination of a dispute over a home that once belonged to his girlfriend's parents.

Hance, 51, had no previous criminal record before the outburst late Sunday morning and his death in a shootout with police in Copley, where a flag flew at half-staff Monday outside the home where the carnage began.

Hance had recently grown angry over residents' comments about the property where he lived with his girlfriend, neighbor Carol Eshleman said. About a month ago, Hance's next-door neighbor Gudrun "Gerdie" Johnson had asked Hance to clean up the property, which included a broken-down car on blocks.

Johnson related the encounter to Eshleman, explaining that she'd never seen Hance so upset. "He said, 'Get off my property and don't come back,' " Eshleman said.

Johnson, 64, was killed in the attack, along with her husband, 67-year-old Russell Johnson; their 44-year-old son Bryan Johnson and his daughter Autumn, 16; Becky Dieter's brother, Craig Dieter, and his 11-year-old son, Scott; and an unidentified girl who was slain while in a parked car with Autumn outside the Johnsons' home.

Becky Dieter, the gunman's longtime girlfriend and a Veterans Administration clerk, was also shot but survived and remains hospitalized.

Authorities on Monday were still trying to work out details of the shootings and a motive for Hance's actions. But comments from police and neighbors help stitch together a picture of a man prone to conflict and under increasing pressure from neighbors.

Hance had worked at a printer's shop in Akron but quit after a dispute and didn't work again, Eshleman said, although Becky Dieter urged him to find a job.

He was a little slow but often read textbooks on diseases and medical procedures and tried to get others interested, she said. He also made and drank odd health concoctions and claimed he didn't have to work because he was an inventor, Eshleman said.

He also seemed constantly under stress, trying to deal with possessions of relatives who had recently died, said Eshleman, a 64-year-old driver for public school special education students.

"Mike was strange," she said, but "I wouldn't think he'd go to this extreme."

The dispute apparently dated to the deaths of Becky and Craig Dieters' parents a couple of years ago, said Eshleman, who was a caregiver for Dieters' parents and also knew Hance. Becky Dieter's brother, Craig, wanted the house sold, but instead Hance and Becky Dieter moved in, Eshleman said.

This story was originally published August 9, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Property dispute apparently sparked shooting rampage."