By Jim Leckrone
COLUMBUS, Ohio (Reuters) - A man suspected of slaying four people in southern Ohio was killed on Saturday in a shootout with police in Columbus that wounded three officers, authorities said.
Officers chased Randle Roberts, 27, to a house in Columbus after he drove around the city in a pickup truck and shot into two separate houses, said Columbus police Sgt. Rich Weiner.
Roberts opened fire from the porch of the house and was killed in an exchange of gunfire with police, and three officers were wounded, Weiner said.
The officers were hospitalized, but one of them has been released and the other two are expected to survive, he said.
Earlier on Saturday, four people were found slain at a home in West Union, Ohio, which is 100 miles south of Columbus, an Adams County sheriff's dispatcher said. The gunman who opened fire on officers in Columbus is suspected of killing the four victims, the dispatcher said.
Weiner confirmed that Columbus police also believe Roberts was involved in those slayings. "It appears that he knew all of the victims," Weiner said.
Another individual who was near Roberts during the Columbus shootout was wounded, but Weiner said investigators have not determined if that person was helping the gunman or if he was simply an innocent bystander.
No one was wounded by the shots Roberts fired into the two homes in Columbus, Weiner said.
(Writing by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Greg McCune )
