NEWTON FALLS - Details on what led to the murder-suicide deaths of five people Friday emerged Monday after police released the audio of the 911 call, in which someone inside the home left the phone line open so that it picked up sounds of crying, arguing and 10 gunshots.
Gunman Rob Brazzon could be heard yelling insults at his ex-brother-in-law's wife, then asking someone inside the home how many times he slept with Tracey Engler, Brazzon's live-in girlfriend. Engler had been the first to be fatally shot in the rampage.
The audio was recorded at the Newton Falls 911 dispatch center from inside Rikki Cogley's 72 Trumbull Ave. home, where he, his wife Kathy and her 15-year-old son Everett Greathouse were fatally shot. Engler, police said, was killed first in Brazzon's 604A Newton Drive home about a block away.
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Tribune Chronicle file
An ambulance is seen at a Newton Falls cemetery on Friday where the man who killed four people killed himself.
The Trumbull County coroner ruled the four deaths homicides Monday and Brazzon's death a suicide by a penetrating contact gunshot wound to the chest. Engler, 38, was killed by penetrating gunshot wounds to the head and face.
Rikki Cogley Sr., 42, Kathy Cogley, 39, and Greathouse all were killed by multiple gunshot wounds, the coroner ruled.
The 911 audio runs for about 4 minutes, 15 seconds, until someone enters the home following the shooting and asks a young, hysterical boy, "Who did this? Did that guy in the white car do this?"
The call led police to search for Brazzon's white Dodge Intrepid for about four hours until they surrounded him in a Newton Falls cemetery, where he shot himself in a brief standoff with police.
The young boy, likely 5-year-old Rikki Cogley Jr., who escaped the home and ran to his aunt's house unscathed, screams throughout the recording.
The call starts out with a man's voice yelling "Don't call me rude, Rob!" followed by Brazzon firing his gun for the first of 10 times on the tape while yelling: "Is that (expletive) rude? Is that rude, (expletive)?"
At about the same time Brazzon fired off a second gunshot, a younger male said, "Oh my God. Oh my God." Brazzon fired two more shots before the male said, "Please, Rob, please."
Brazzon told the male to sit down twice, then to "let go" and "back off" before the male screams, "Please, Rob!"
Brazzon then asks how many times he slept with "her" and fires three more shots, followed by another shot several seconds later.
Brazzon later yells, "You treated me like (expletive)!" and fires one more shot.
Brazzon then tells the child to go in his room several times. The boy cries "My da-da died."
The rest of the tape consists of crying and dogs barking. About five dogs were removed from the home following the slayings.
Newton Falls police continue to investigate. No charges were filed Monday against a second man who police said drove from the neighborhood with Brazzon after the killings. He had been questioned after incident Friday, police said.
Newton Falls police Chief John Kuivila said late Monday that he was confident the person responsible for the shootings is now deceased, stopping short of saying whether anyone else would be charged.
Police pored over 72 Trumbull Ave. for about four hours until they raced to the cemetery Friday afternoon. While there, Brazzon's daughter, Lisa, found Engler dead inside her home.
Investigators still processing the other house taped off the Newton Drive area and began investigating, eventually calling the state Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation.