CHESTERLAND, Ohio — The family of 39-year-old Robert "Rob" Russell is in a state of shock and disbelief as they rack their brains as to how and why he was fatally shot this week.
According to Put-in-Bay Police, the shooting happened on Thursday just after midnight.
When police arrived, they found a man—whom family later confirmed as Russell—suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.
Russell's cousin, Carly Konieczny, said he and his wife were at Mr. Ed's Bar and Grille that night, celebrating his 40th birthday, which would have been Friday.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
To Konieczny's knowledge, she said Russell had no ties to the alleged shooter and that it seems to have been a random act of gun violence.
No other injuries were reported.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol used air support to help find the suspect, who has been identified as 21-year-old Colton Smith of Brownstown, Michigan.
Smith was taken into custody by the Ottawa County Sheriff's Office around 3:45 a.m. and is facing murder charges with a firearms specification in Ottawa County Municipal Court. He initially appeared in court on Thursday at 1 p.m., and a bond of $1 million was set.
Police said no other individuals are being sought.
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Konieczny told me she found out about her cousin through her mom the morning after Russell's death.
"I woke up to a text from my mom saying, 'Call me when you wake up.' I just kind of had a feeling in my gut from there and it still felt unbelievable when she told me. It's just still been a lot of processing and trying to pinch yourself and see if it's real," she said on Sunday.
Russell was born and raised in Chesterland.
His family described him as a stellar man and father to four.
"Rob was a guy of really deep faith. I think we all got that from our grandparents, and that was something that was really central to who he was as a person, as a husband, as a father. That was central to everything about him, even what he did for his job. He was a handyman and the reason that he went into that and decided to do that is because there were little old ladies at the church that he wanted to be able to help out and be able to do it with a lot of integrity," Konieczny said.
Konieczny said she had a close relationship with Russell, spending every holiday with him as a kid.
"We played together on our family's land. He's got four kids that are just the greatest kids in the world. He was one of the first of all the grandkids to have kids, and so we loved being around their family. He and Lindsay and the boys and then Hannah, they were just always doing something fun. They were always doing adventures. They just lived such a fun, exciting life. He was just always doing something," Konieczny said.
She told me his wife has been incredibly strong through the last few days as the community has wrapped her and her kids in support and love.
"People who didn't even know him have been reaching out and, you know, supporting them in any way they can, so they've absolutely felt the love and the support and the prayers from everybody. It's going to be a long road, absolutely, but like I said, he was just the best dad and he's raised four wonderful kids, and I know that they're going to continue to take care of each other and to take care of their mom," Konieczny said.
Konieczny said it all has felt surreal, thinking she won't grow old with her cousin anymore.
"He's always been in my life. He's been a constant throughout everything and life gets crazy. He had kids and I had kids and you don't get to see each other as much because everybody's at different sports, but you just always assumed that in 10 years we'd all still be sitting around on the porch or teasing each other and that's how we saw our parents. That's how we saw our grandparents, and I think we just all took that for granted that we would also be able to do that. It's really hard to think that he won't be around when we're all there in 10 years," she said. "He was really the best guy. Nobody deserves this, but he, especially of all people, didn't deserve anything like this."
Russell's family is still figuring out service arrangements and how to keep his legacy alive.
One of the ways to do so, Konieczny said, is through the continuous sharing of memories, including the life Russell built with his wife of nearly two decades.
"He was her first love. Like they've been together for almost half their lives and have built a wonderful life together. He never was somebody who had to make time for his wife and his kids. He just built a life that they could live together," she told me. "We know that there are tons of people that he grew up with, tons of people in his life that have just such funny memories with him, and we just would love for them to continue sharing them and continue sharing them with Lindsay and the kids so that they can just learn more about who their dad was."
Konieczny said Russell was really close with his sisters and parents as well.
"He was like best friends with his sisters. They would always be together and teasing and like hanging out. Anytime they were all together, they were having fun. He and his mom still had a tradition well into adulthood. At Christmas, she would buy him a toy, like just an actual toy, just to keep it fun because they were always having fun and spending time together. That was what was most important to him, and so we're absolutely going to try to continue to honor that. We're spending lots of time together as a family and just keeping his memory, you know, very much alive," she said.
A GoFundMe has been created to support Russell's wife and kids. Already, more than $120,000 has been donated. If you'd like to donate, CLICK HERE.
"The void he leaves behind is immeasurable," Russell's wife, Lindsay, wrote on the GoFundMe page.
