CROSBY TOWNSHIP, Ohio -- When James Rhymer called 911 last month, the first thing he told the operator was that he'd shot someone.
He said he acted in self defense.
"He was coming after me," Rhymer told the operator, calmly.
He'd shot Thomas James Landacre, 37, on June 29 near a community pool in the Fort Scott subdivision, off Blue Rock Road.
In his 911 call, Rhymer repeatedly insisted: "I had to."
The two men were there to trade custody of Rhymer's 3-year-old son. The child apparently was in the car with Rhymer when he called 911, and he told the operator he'd place his weapon in his trunk.
Listen to Rhymer's 911 call below:
People who heard or saw what happened called 911, too. They didn't share Rhymer's calm.
"There's a woman holding neck and she's screaming," one of them said. "He is not moving."
The crowd, some frantic, tried to save Landacre. Someone tried to perform CPR. One of the witnesses was a nurse.
"I'm trying to feel for a pulse," she said, "and I don't feel a pulse."
Dan Cavanaugh, an off-duty Cincinnati police sergeant, walked over to talk with Rhymer. He was wearing only his swimsuit as he stood with Rhymer, waiting for Hamilton County deputies to arrive. Cavanaugh told the 911 operator that Rhymer was cooperative.
And later, when Rhymer's child started crying, Cavanaugh stepped in to calm him down.
Deputies took Rhymer away that night, and he remains locked up at the Hamilton County Justice Center on a $750,000 bond. Hamilton County Sheriff's Detective James Otte told a judge last month there's surveillance video of what happened "in its entirety."
"Based on the investigation thusfar, there is nothing to indicate that the events that led up to the shooting were anything more than a verbal altercation," Otte said.
A grand jury indicted Rhymer on a count of murder last week. He's scheduled for an arraignment hearing at 8:30 a.m. July 13.
