'It's hard to process': Parents, teens, 6-year-old dead after 2 shootings

A 19-year-old man is believed to have been the triggerman in a double homicide and a suicide in Avondale on Friday.

The Hamilton County Coroner's Office said Monday that the death of Eric Johnson Jr. was an apparent suicide and that the deaths of his mother and brother - 38-year-old Darlene Flores and 16-year-old Rodrigo Johnson - were apparent homicides.

The family has been struck with tragedy twice in less than a year. An earlier shooting in Mount Healthy claimed the lives of a father and a daughter.

Cincinnati police found Flores and the Johnson brothers dead at about 5:30 a.m. Friday after officers were called to their Avondale home in the 3600 block of Canyon Drive on a report of a person who was possibly deceased, police said. When police reached the scene, they found the mother and two sons unresponsive and each had suffered a gunshot wound.

Cincinnati Fire Department personnel, who also responded to the scene, determined all three to be dead.

More: Police: Teen who killed mother and brother had killed before in 2020

Police: Father shoots daughter, himself during SWAT standoff

Less than six months before the shooting in Avondale, Eric Johnson Sr., 40, shot and killed his 6-year-old daughter, Iyla Johnson, before turning the gun on himself, according to the Mount Healthy Police Department.

Mount Healthy officers were dispatched to the Lake of the Woods Apartments on Aug. 21 for a dispute involving a custody exchange, according to the department.

As officers entered the apartment, they heard a gunshot from a second-floor bedroom but were unable to get inside because the room was barricaded from within, police said.

Police said additional shots were fired as officers attempted to force entry. The officers then called for a Hamilton County SWAT team.

The SWAT team broke into the bedroom after attempts to communicate with Johnson Sr. were unsuccessful, police said. Once inside, they found him and his 6-year-old daughter dead of gunshot wounds.

Iyla's obituary lists Flores as her mother and Johnson Jr. and Rodrigo Johnson as her siblings.

Police have not said whether there is a connection between these shootings. The Enquirer has requested documents from the police departments in Cincinnati and Mount Healthy.

'It's hard to process'

Timyone Andrew and Beamer Walker, both 18, said they played football with Johnson Jr. at Roger Bacon High School. The pair described the Johnsons' and Flores' house as a second home.

"We spent Christmas together, we'd have matching outfits, we took family pictures together, like, this was really like a second family," Andrew said while standing across from Canyon Drive as a police cruiser blocked off access to the street. "It's like not being allowed in your home."

Andrew and Walker said Iyla's death was extremely difficult on her family.

"When I pull up here, I'm ready to see my boy. I expect to see my boy," Andrew said of Johnson Jr. "Now that I can't, it's hard to process."

Johnson Jr.'s friends say he graduated from Roger Bacon last year.

Rodrigo Johnson was on the varsity football team at Purcell Marian Catholic High School, school officials confirmed. The school's roster shows he was a junior and played wide receiver and defensive back. As a result of his death, the high school canceled all athletic events over the weekend.

Anyone struggling with suicidal thoughts can call or text the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988, or 800-273-8255 any time day or night, or chat online at https://988lifeline.org/chat/.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: 'It's hard to process': Parents, teens, 6-year-old dead after shootings