Five killed in US shooting spree

ABC News (Link) - AFP (March 6, 2009)

Four children and a woman have been killed and a child has been seriously injured in a shooting rampage in the midwestern US city of Cleveland, Ohio, police say.

Police early on Friday swarmed across a section of west Cleveland searching for the suspect, who they identified as Davon Crawford, 33. All but one of the victims are children, Cleveland Police Lieutenant Thomas Stacho told reporters. "From what I understand he [Crawford] is the father of some of the children," he said.

Police said a child fled the middle-class neighbourhood house where the shooting took place around 8:00pm local time on Thursday calling for help. By the time officers arrived the suspect had fled on foot. The local newspaper, the Cleveland Plains-Dealer, reported that one of the victims was the mother of the children.

Crawford has a violent history, including a 2002 prison stint on a domestic violence incident that also involved a gun and children, The Plains-Dealer reported.