A woman who was shot at a home in Atwater Township, Ohio, on Tuesday morning has died, and the man accused of killing her faces an aggravated murder charge, the Portage County Sheriff’s Office said.
The shooting happened at about 9:30 a.m. on October 20 at a residence in Atwater Township, according to the sheriff’s office. The woman’s family has been notified of her death. Her identity is being withheld until investigators have questioned the suspect.
Authorities have charged Travis C. Lovett, 21, whose last known address is in Florida, with aggravated murder, according to records from the Portage County Municipal Court in Ravenna. The complaint filed by the sheriff’s office alleges that Lovett shot the victim with a firearm multiple times.
Sheriff’s Detective Bureau Capt. Lew Finsen said Lovett fled the scene in a vehicle after the shooting. Authorities described the suspect as a young man, possibly in his late teens or early 20s, with sandy-colored, shoulder-length hair, wearing a tan shirt and pants and carrying a tan backpack. Investigators believed he may have fled in a small black car with black rims, and he was last reported in the area of State Route 183 in Atwater.
The search prompted Waterloo Local Schools and Southeast Local Schools to go on a soft lockdown as a precaution while deputies looked for the suspect.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol’s Cambridge post took Lovett into custody in Guernsey County early in the afternoon. Once he was in custody, both school lockdowns were lifted. The sheriff’s office said it is arranging for Lovett to be returned to Portage County.
Investigators were expected to question Lovett in Guernsey County, and the sheriff’s office said more information could be released in a media statement. No motive has been confirmed, and it was unclear whether the victim and the suspect knew each other.
Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call the Portage County Sheriff’s Office at 330-296-5100.
The account above follows reporting by WNIR 100 FM and the Ravenna Record-Courier.
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