An Ohio man fatally shot seven people, including an 11-year-old and wounded two others before he was shot down by the police, said reports. The incident occurred around 11: a.m. on Sunday in Copley Township, about seven miles west of Akron, Ohio police said.

The gunman shot five people in one location and two more nearby before the police shot and killed him, Copley Police Chief Michael Mier told reporters.

After locating several victims, police spotted the suspect and pursued him before "he engaged the officers in gunfire," Mier said.

The rampage occurred after an argument broke out in a residence, Mier told CNN affiliate WJW. Five people were killed in the residence and two others were killed in a nearby road.

Police haven't yet determined the motive behind the shootings, or revealed the identity of the victims.

Mier told reporters that the case was a little "unusual" as it was "so large and involved multiple locations." However he was glad at all the help he was getting.

A woman who lived near the scene of the shooting said that the wife of one of the victims banged on her door yelling for help and screaming, "He's killing everyone! He killed my husband! I'm a widow," according to a Fox News report.

Copley Township is a peaceful, residential neighborhood of about 14000 people and is 40 miles south of Cleveland.

The terrible incident has unnerved the quiet community. A prayer vigil was held for those who died as well as the two wounded by gunfire in the neighborhood.

Such shooting sprees have been on the rise in the U.S. Last month a 15-year-old boy died and eight people were wounded in a backyard shooting in Stockton, California. In a similar and very gruesome incident, six people were killed at a roller rink in Texas on July 23, after a 35-year-old man shot his estranged wife, her sisters, her brother and her sister-in-law, before turning the gun on himself at his son's eleventh birthday party. During that weekend itself at least twelve people were injured in a shooting in Seattle, which occurred at a car show at a crowded shopping centre after a fight reportedly broke out when a man insulted another car owner's paint work. In fact all these incidences and some other ones too occurred during the same weekend (July 25 to July 28). At least 14 people were killed and 53 others wounded in a string of shooting sprees that occurred over a span of just three days during the fateful weekend.

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