CRIME

More than 60 guns seized from Kirkersville shooter's house

Bethany Bruner
Newark Advocate

UTICA - When police officers searched the home of Thomas Hartless several hours after he shot and killed three people and himself at a Kirkersville nursing facility, more than 60 guns were found inside.

According to inventories filed with the search warrants in Licking County Common Pleas Court, 64 guns, ammunition and a laptop computer were taken from the home of Thomas Hartless, located at 328 Oakland Avenue, in Utica.

Hartless had at least two guns in his possession on Friday morning when he fatally shot Kirkersville Police Chief Steven Eric DiSario, 38, outside the Pine Kirk Care Center and nurse aide Cindy Krantz, 48, and nurse Marlina Medrano, 46, inside the facility.

DiSario and Krantz were each killed by a single shot from a shotgun, while Medrano was shot multiple times with both a shotgun and a handgun. 

Hartless took his own life with a shotgun, according to preliminary autopsy results released by the Licking County Coroner's Office Monday. 

Deputies with the Licking County Sheriff's Office and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation executed multiple search warrants within hours of the shooting, which occurred around 7:30 a.m. Friday. 

More:Column: Kirkersville shootings bring unwanted spotlight

More:Could Kirkersville shooting have been prevented?

More:Full Kirkersville coverage

Police entered the Hartless home, where Hartless was believed to be living with his parents, around 2:40 p.m.

According to the return, a laptop computer and 45 cartridge cases for a shotgun were located in a bedroom. 

A paper bag containing the case for a Ruger P90 .45 caliber handgun with one magazine was located in a garage safe. 

Several thousand dollars in cash was also located in the safe, according to the return. 

Sixty-four other firearms were also located during the search and seized by police.

Of those 64 firearms, 21 were shotguns, 20 were rifles, 18 were other types of firearms, such as revolvers or pistols and three were air or pellet guns. The search returns do not specify the types of the remaining firearms collected.

Police also executed search warrants on two vehicles used by Hartless. One of those vehicles was located at the Oakland Avenue address and the other was found at the Flying J Truck Stop, about a mile from the shooting site in Kirkersville.

The inventories for those search warrants have not yet been filed with the court. 

A search warrant was also executed at the home of Medrano, who was Hartless's former girlfriend. Hartless had stayed at her residence as recently as eight days prior to the shooting, according to court and police records. 

During that search, several documents, including a copy of a protection order Medrano obtained against Hartless on May 5, were located the family room and a bedroom.

Several CDs and memory cards were collected from a kitchen cabinet, according to the inventory.

A fired cartridge case from a shotgun shell was also located in the kitchen of her Newark residence. 

Hartless was not permitted to possess or own a firearm as a result of his 2010 felony conviction for abduction in Knox County. It is unclear who the firearms belonged to that were seized from the Oakland Avenue home and if they were legally obtained. 

It is also unclear if Hartless had direct access to any of those weapons, which could have been charged as a felony for having weapons under disability as a result of his prior conviction.