Vigil Held at Copley High After Shooting Rampage

The community gathered at Copley High School on Monday night, where two of Sunday night's shooting victims were students.

"It's just unbelievable, it just seems like a bad horror movie really, like it just doesn't seem like this should be real at all," said classmate Mike Heft.

At least 200 people formed a large circle outside the high school stadium to hold hands and grieve the loss off Autumn Johnson, 16, and a still unidentified classmate, who is also 16-years-old.

The two high school students were among the seven people fatally shot by a gunman during a weekend rampage.

According to the Copley Police Department, Michael Hance, 51, 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.

Hance's alleged killing spree was the culmination of a dispute over a home that once belonged to his girlfriend's parents.

Hance had recently grown angry over residents' comments about the property where he lived with his girlfriend, Becky Dieter, neighbor Carol Eshleman said.

Gudrun 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 remained hospitalized Monday night.

According to a next door neighbor, the two high school students were found dead in a vehicle parked in the Johnson's driveway on Goodenough Avenue. "I ran over there to see what was happening and I, so I run up on them, other people layin' in the yard and everything, in the driveway - I hesitate to talk about it, I think it's affecting me," said Gilbert Elie, 76.

Elie said he heard the cries for help and went to the scene, where he told police, he saw Hance shooting.

"The lady come off the porch over there and said something to me, I didn't understand her and I said, 'Did anybody call 911?' And the guy walked out behind her and walked right up behind her - pow, pow, pow, pow, pow, down she went," said Elie.

News of Monday night's vigil at the high school spread on Facebook, where the two students are remembered as fun, loving and caring girls who didn't deserve what happened.

"When I was eight, my mom passed away and so, like, I have that experience to go off of to help this but it's gonna take a long time because they were both really loved by everyone," said Zoey Pearce, a friend of both victims.

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 to take his life elsewhere.

Classes resume in a few weeks at Copley High School, but grief counseling is available for students. "Just remember them and don't forget them, you know? It was a horrific thing, and talk about it accept what you're feeling and allow yourself to feel those things," said Gwen Barlow-Martinez, a Copley resident and parent.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)