Before the start of Monday's council meeting, Burton Village Mayor Jim Koster asked for a moment of silence in memory of Catherine Sutter, a longtime…
Before the start of Monday’s council meeting, Burton Village Mayor Jim Koster asked for a moment of silence in memory of Catherine Sutter, a longtime village resident and former councilwoman who was fatally shot at a Chagrin Falls retirement community last Thursday.
He said her death was a tragedy and likely a result of “being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Former Councilwoman Judy Beaumier said she served with Sutter on council in the 1990s and remembers her as a person who was involved in the community and always left people with a smile. She also loved her Jack Russell terriers.
Sutter, 58, and Terri Tread-way, also 58, of Hambden Town-ship, were gunned down around 8:30 a.m. March 24 inside or around Building 14 inside the Hamlet Village retirement community.
The two women had worked as housekeepers at the village for years.
The suspected shooter, Frank Staton, 56, lived with Treadway in Leaders Mobile Home Community and was in a relationship with her, police said. He was a dining room chef at the community.
Shelly Brooks, a neighbor of Treadway’s, told Fox 8 Cleveland that Staton was obsessive and controlling.
Police responded to the retirement community after a neighbor discovered Staton unresponsive in the building’s stairwell.
“The only thing we heard was loud noises out in the hallway,” Richard Kohl, who lives in Building 14, told Fox 8 Cleveland. “We weren’t absolutely sure that it was gunshots, but it very well could have been.”
Police didn’t release where they found Sutter and Treadway.
Staton was wounded in the incident, but police have not said whether he shot himself during the shooting.
Police said Staton admitted to the shootings and a holster and loaded handgun magazine were found on him at the scene.
Staton remains hospitalized under police guard at Hillcrest Hospital in Mayfield Heights.
According to Bedford Municipal Court, charges have yet to be filed against him.
Police haven’t pinned down a motive for the attack.
Chagrin Falls Mayor William Tomko said the shooting is the most violent incident he can remember since he moved to the village in 1974.
“Chagrin Falls is a very safe community. We have very little crime in Chagrin Falls,” Tomko said during a March 24 morning news conference. “I’ve lived here for almost 40 years and this is the first time even anything remotely approaching this has occurred.”
Hamlet Village offers a range of living arrangements for its 300 residents, including a nursing center, assisted living and independent living, according to the company’s website.
The home where the shooting happened was in the independent living unit that is accessible by the public.
“It’s a very shocking event and a very sad day for the entire village,” Tomko later told Fox 8 Cleveland. “This is the last thing in the world that I would have expected, the absolute last.”
He added, “To try to explain an irrational act with rational thought, you never can do that. This is the ultimate irrational act.”
Chagrin Falls Schools was on spring break, but district Superintendent Robert Hunt said nearby Chagrin Falls Intermediate School was evacuated as a precaution.
Multiple law enforcement agencies assisted in this investigation, including the Geauga County Sheriff’s Office, police from Bainbridge, Chester and Russell townships, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner.
