'Everybody feels everything.' Small community of New Richmond shaken by family shooting

Richard Kincannon said he has not stopped crying since Thursday, not since he saw the sheets removed from the small bodies of three brothers who were fatally shot and left lying in the yard of their Monroe Township home.

"I can't even explain how bad it was," said Kincannon, 49, of Milford. He struggled, at times, to hold back tears as he recalled the aftermath of the previous day's carnage.

Many in Clermont County are reeling from what prosecutors have described as an execution-style killing by 32-year-old Chad Doerman, who they say lined up his three sons, ages 3, 4 and 7, and shot them with a rifle.

Clermont County shooting: Chad Doerman planned execution of sons, prosecutor says

Kincannon's children have been neighbors with Doerman for the last four years, he said, adding he was house sitting for his ex-wife when the shooting happened.

While he wasn't close with the family, he saw the three little boys frequently, playing outdoors. They loved being outside, he said, and they played baseball and drove go-karts.

"They were such good kids," Kincannon said, standing just feet away from Doerman's driveway.

By the end of the day, the spot had become a makeshift memorial fashioned out of plush animals, toy cars, balloons, flowers and three small crosses for the three children.

Yellow crime scene tape still cordoned off the yard.

New Richmond community shaken by murders of three boys, just months after February shooting

Kincannon is angry and has so many unanswered questions. He's not the only one.

Thursday’s shooting was the second in less than a year where children were killed by a parent in the New Richmond community − a riverside village of just over 2,700 residents known largely for its annual Fourth of July fireworks display.

In February, 13-year-old Ethan Cain, a New Richmond middle schooler, was shot alongside his sister, father and another relative. Only the young woman survived. The sheriff's office said Ethan's mother, Theresa Cain, shot her family before turning the gun on herself.

"It's a small community. Everybody feels everything," said Robert Wooten, lead pastor of Connection Point Church in New Richmond.

Wooten opened the church doors to anyone who wanted to gather there Friday evening.

'A lot of our people are hurting here'

While residents say they don't feel any less safe in the community, some likened the shootings to lightning striking twice.

"A lot of our people are hurting here," 22-year-old Hailey Jowers said.

In court Friday morning, prosecutors said Doerman confessed to police he had planned the triple homicide. He's facing three counts of aggravated murder.

Prosecutors said one of the boys tried to flee into a field and Doerman "hunted" him down, brought him back to the house and killed him.

New Richmond shooting: Community struggles after killing of three boys

When authorities arrived at the home, they found the children lying in the front yard, the sheriff's office said, adding the boys were declared dead at the scene.

Ohio man Chad Doerman charged in triple homicide of his three sons

Deputies found Doerman sitting outside on a step. He was detained without incident and questioned.

The boys' mother was shot in the hand while trying to shield her children from danger, prosecutors said.

Dispatchers were alerted to the crime by 911 calls, the first of which was received at 4:15 p.m. Thursday. In it, a woman screamed her “babies had been shot,” according to a statement released by the Clermont County Sheriff’s Office.

A second call made three minutes later was from a neighbor who reported a young girl was running down the road screaming “her father was killing everyone,” officials said.

Prosecutors later identified the girl as Doerman's stepdaughter.

“To have two within four months, it’s horrific,” New Richmond Exempted Village Schools Superintendent Tracey Miller said. The surviving sister of the three boys is a rising freshman at New Richmond High School. The boy killed in February was in eighth grade in the district.

"If you're human or if you have a heartbeat," Wooten, the pastor, said, "you're hurting."

Enquirer reporters Cameron Knight and Annasofia Scheve contributed.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Ohio community shaken after 3 boys killed, father Chad Doerman charged