"He shot my babies," a woman told a neighbor before the Garfield Heights SWAT fights

GARFIELD HEIGHTS, Ohio – A Garfield Heights woman ran Wednesday to her neighbor and said her boyfriend shot her children, a neighbor said.

Several children were shot just after 9:30 pm at home on East 86th Street near Garfield Boulevard, the union representing firefighters Garfield Heights said on Facebook. A SWAT unit then encircled a house where the gunman would be barricaded inside, according to the authorities.

The shooting took place after a woman fought with her boyfriend, said a neighbor at cleveland.com.

Neighbor Connie Allshouse said the woman had rushed home and asked Allshouse to call the police.

"Call 911, Connie, he shot my babies, he shot my babies," said Allshouse, 67, who described the woman.

SWAT members asked Allshouse and other neighbors to evacuate their homes.

Allshouse said the woman had been fighting with her boyfriend and that the woman's 17-year-old son had tried to break him. The woman told her son to run away and her 19-year-old sister would be back from work soon.

Allshouse said he heard four to five shots before the woman knocked on her door screaming for help. Allshouse's husband ran outside and found the son and daughter of the woman lying on the ground, Allshouse said.

The son "did not look too handsome," said Allshouse. The son and daughter were taken to hospitals for treatment; the authorities have not given any updates on their terms.

Allshouse said the woman was "always afraid" of her boyfriend.

"He always threatened her and said that he would kill them and set the house on fire," Allshouse said.

More than a dozen police cars, ambulances and fire trucks doubled the street just past midnight. Police officers from Valley View, Bedford and Solon were also on site.

East 86th Street is closed in the area. A SWAT armored vehicle was seen arriving just before midnight. SWAT agents asked spectators and journalists to move several meters away when approaching the house with powerful rifles and bullet-proof vests.

The street is generally calm, said Allshouse, but she feared that the fighting of the last four or five years would worsen.

"I've always known it would happen," she said, bursting into tears. "And it finally arrived."

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