Three wounded in Ohio shooting spree; police kill suspect

By Kim Palmer (Reuters) - An Ohio man suspected of critically wounding an ex-girlfriend and the son of another former girlfriend in a shooting rampage on Friday was killed by police in a gunfight in a store parking lot that left an officer seriously wounded, police said. Danny Thornton, 47, is suspected of shooting a 9-year-old boy when he answered the door at a suburban home and driving across town to shoot a woman working at a dentist's office in Columbus, Columbus Police Sergeant Rich Weiner told a news conference. The boy was listed in critical condition at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Weiner said. Grove City police said the woman, who they said was a friend of the boy's mother, was in critical condition at a local hospital. Weiner said two people who knew Thornton alerted police that he had told them after he shot the boy and woman that he had murdered two people and was not going back to jail. Weiner did not say how Thornton was located, but when police found him he jumped from his car and "raised his weapon to officers." Weiner described the officer who was shot as a 24-year veteran and a SWAT member. The officer was in serious but stable condition at a Columbus hospital, police said. Weiner said cameras at local business may have recorded the gun fight between Thornton and police, but the scene was "chaotic" and the investigation ongoing. (Reporting by Kim Palmer in Cleveland,; Editing by Kevin Murphy, David Bailey and Andrew Hay)