COLUMBUS, Ohio – After Danny Thornton told some friends that he had killed two people he vowed that he would not go back to jail and he won’t.
Thornton (above) was gunned down in the parking lot of a Northeast Side shopping mall Friday morning after shooting a nine-year-old boy in Grove City and a woman in a Groveport-area dentist’s office.
A Columbus police officer was also injured in the incident during which Thornton was shot.
“We’re going to be talking to family members to determine, exactly, why did this happen, what set him off,” Columbus police spokesman Sgt. Rich Weiner said.
Thornton, 47, allegedly shot the nine-year-old boy when he answered the door of a home in the 2700 block of Independence Way in Grove City shortly after 7:30 Friday morning, Capt. Jeff Pearson of the Grove City Division of Police said.
His mother and older brothers were home at the time of the shooting and called police, Weiner said.
The woman was shot while working inside the office of Pitts Dentistry, 4409 S. Hamilton Road – at 8:01 a.m., Weiner said.
The boy was in critical condition at Nationwide Children’s Hospital; the woman was also in critical condition, at Grant Medical Center. Their names were not released.
Two people who knew Thornton called Columbus police to say he was not planning on being taken alive
“They said ‘We just got a phone call from Danny, he said that he’s killed two people and he’s not going back to jail,” Weiner said.
Weiner says Columbus and Grove City police and the FBI tracked Thornton to the parking lot of a Walmart and Sam’s Club on Morse Road near Easton Town Center, where his crime spree came to an end at 9:46 a.m.
Weiner says Thornton jumped out of his Toyota Camry, raised a handgun and was shot to death by Columbus SWAT officers, one of whom was injured during the incident.
The 24-year- veteran of the police division was listed in stable condition and was expected to be released from the hospital Saturday morning. Weiner says it was not clear if the officer was struck by a bullet or fragments or whether Thornton fired his weapon.
Weiner emphasized that the attempted arrest of Thornton was a thoroughly-planned maneuver involving Columbus uniformed and plainclothes officers, SWAT and the FBI.
Relationships between Thornton and his victims were unclear Friday morning but Pearson confirmed the nine-year-old boy was the son of Thornton’s ex-girlfriend. A 17-year-old son Thornton had with the boy’s mother was one of three juveniles at the Independence Way home, along with the boys’ mother, when the shooting occurred, Pearson said. None of the others were injured.
There was no information immediately available on the relationship between Thornton and the woman who was shot in the dentist’s office.
All three shootings are still under investigation.
Some Columbus, Groveport and Grove City schools were locked down as a precaution during the hunt for Thornton.
Traffic along Morse Road and I-270 on the northeast side was restricted for a portion of the morning as part of the ongoing investigation.
Both Walmart and Sam’s Club remained open, however access to the parking lots were restricted. No customers or employees were injured in the shooting.