Sheriff: Owner of gun in murder-suicide unknown

HURON TWP. — Authorities are still trying to find out how a teenage boy got the gun he allegedly used to shoot his mother and himself.Erie County sheriff's detectives are still investigating the Tuesday shootings of Heather Schmidt, 44, and Dakota Leeland, 16, in the 500 block of Snowy Egret Drive.The sheriff's office believes that Leeland shot Schmidt at least once in the head before shooting himself. Schmidt died at the scene. Her son died Wednesday in a Cleveland hospital.Law enforcement suspects Dakota Leeland (right) shot and killed his mother, Heather Schmidt (left) before shooting himself in the head Tuesday, June 4, in a Snowy Egret Drive home.Sheriff Paul Sigsworth said autopsies on both Schmidt and Leeland were completed today and his office is waiting on autopsy reports.Detectives found five shell casings at the scene.It's not known who the weapon, a .380 caliber Bersa semi-automatic handgun, was registered to. But the detectives think the weapon might have been in the possession of an older family member, in a bedroom in the Snowy Egret Drive home.Sigsworth said it's not yet known if the gun was secured in any way prior to when Dakota came to be in possession of it."The investigation is very active," he said. "All of our detectives and a number of uniformed personnel are working on this as we speak and have been almost nonstop since 10 p.m. Tuesday. We're continuing to try to obtain as much information as we can and get as definite answers as we can."ReactionSeveral people who live near the Snowy Egret Drive home told the Register they didn't hear anything Tuesday — be it gunshots or police sirens — and didn't know that a shooting had occurred until someone texted them about it shortly after 10 p.m.When they looked outside, they saw police vehicles at Schmidt's home."We said, 'Oh my God, there was a murder in the neighborhood,'" a man, who did not want to be identified, said.He and a woman, who also did not want to be identified, both said they were acquaintances with Schmidt and her family."We were shocked that they were labeling it as a murder-suicide," the woman said.But the woman added that, while shocked, she wasn't surprised by the news. Both she and the man said they've seen police vehicles at the home at least a half dozen times."They've had issues for a long time," the woman said. "We knew something was going to happen, but were totally shocked with this."Visit our Erie County Sheriff's Office hub for more storiesReach reporter Brandon Addeo at brandonaddeo@sanduskyregister.com, follow him on Twitter @BrandonAddeo and follow the Register at Facebook.com/SanduskyRegisterThe suspected murder-suicide occurred in the basement of this home in the 500 block of Snowy Egret Drive.