NORTH ROYALTON, Ohio - The man investigators identified as a suspect in five homicides contacted a local television reporter shortly before he was arrested at the end of a Brunswick standoff, police said. 
 
 George Brinkman, 45, exchanged Facebook messages with a WOIO-Channel 19 reporter in the hours before and during the nine-hour standoff, Brunswick Lt. Robert Safran said. 
 
 The news station notified the police department, and investigators asked her to stop talking to Brinkman, Safran said. The conversation ended at that time, he said. 
 
 "We got the impression that [Brinkman] wanted to get his story out there before we released any more information," Safran said Tuesday afternoon. 
 
 WOIO-Channel 19 reporter Lacey Crisp reached out to Brinkman on Monday because he is friends on Facebook with three women found dead Sunday in North Royalton, according to a story posted on the news channel's website. Investigators on Tuesday identified Brinkman as a suspect in the homicides. 
 
 "She saw him as a family friend, so she reached out to him on Facebook," WOIO-Channel 19 news director Fred D'Ambrosi said Tuesday in a phone interview. 
 
 Brinkman initially agreed to an on-camera interview to discuss the three women and his relationship to them. But he later revealed he was at the standoff scene in Brunswick, D'Ambrosi said. 
 
 The news channel contacted the police department because it was unclear at the time if others might be in the house with Brinkman, and possibly in danger, D'Ambrosi said. 
 
 "We made the ethical decision that we needed to let the police know," he said. 
 
 Crisp asked Brinkman to surrender, but Brinkman later accused her of working with police and said she "stabbed [him] in the back," the news channel's story says. 
 
 Brinkman also denied any involvement in the homicides and said he broke his hand days earlier at work, the story says. 
 
 Brinkman is charged with murder in the deaths of Lake Township residents Rogell Eugene John, 71, and his wife Roberta Ray John, 64, the Stark County Sheriff's Office said. The sheriff's office secured a warrant for Brinkman's arrest but he remains in custody at the North Royalton Police Department, officials said. 
 
 The North Canton couple was found dead Monday afternoon in their home on Mt. Pleasant Street NE in North Canton. They died from gunshot wounds, the Stark County Coroner's Office said. 
 
 Brinkman has not been charged in connection with the deaths of North Royalton resident Suzanne Taylor, 45, and her daughters Taylor Pifer, 21, and Kylie Pifer, 18, police said. The three women likely died Saturday at their home on Ridge Road in North Royalton, police said. 
 
 Taylor was stabbed at least once, but investigators have not determined how she or her daughters died. Investigators did not recover a knife at the crime scene. 
 
 Investigators learned Monday that Brinkman was at a woman's home on Valley Forge Drive in Brunswick. A SWAT team surrounded the house just after 9:30 p.m., and officers took him into custody early Tuesday, police said. The woman left the home unharmed. 
 
 Officers entered the home just before 5:30 a.m. and used a stun gun on Brinkman, who was holding a gun, Safran said. 
 
 Brinkman's criminal history includes misdemeanor convictions for passing bad checks, criminal mischief and disorderly conduct, records show. 
 
 Brinkman was a squatter who was house-sitting for Rogell and Roberta John before they were killed, the Stark County Sheriff's Office said in a news release. Brinkman previously was in a relationship with the couple's daughter, sheriff's deputies said. 
 
 Several neighbors said Tuesday that they did not know the couple well, apart from friendly waves as they passed by on the street. 
 
 Neighbors near Brinkman's last known address on Norriton Circle in North Canton said he moved out approximately two years ago, and that they did not know him well. 
 
 If you'd like to comment on this story, visit Tuesday's crime and courts comments section. 
 
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 NORTH ROYALTON, Ohio - The man suspected of killing a North Royalton mother and her two daughters as well as a Lake Township couple is in police custody facing murder charges. 
 
 George C. Brinkman, Jr., 45, of Brunswick was being held by North Royalton Police Tuesday afternoon. Brinkman was taken into custody after a nearly 9 hour standoff in Brunswick that ended around 5:30 a.m. 
 
 North Royalton Police Detective Dave Loeding said Brinkman is suspected in the murders of Suzanne Taylor, 45, and her daughters Taylor Pifer, 21, and Kylie Pifer, 18, whose bodies were discovered in their Ridge Road home Sunday. 
 
 Stark County Sheriff George Maier said Brinkman is facing murder charges in the shooting deaths of Rogell Eugene John II, 71, and his wife, Roberta Ray John, 64, discovered at a home on Mt. Pleasant NE in Lake Township Monday afternoon. 
 
 Loeding said the three women killed in North Royalton were found on a bed, and Taylor's throat had been cut with a knife. He said there were no outward signs of a cause of death of her daughters. 
 
 "I'm just devastated. I don't understand it. I don't understand why somebody would do something like this," said Marcia Taylor, mother of Suzanne Taylor. 
 
 Relatives told Fox 8 News that Brinkman and Taylor both graduated from Valley Forge High School and were longtime friends but were not romantically involved. 
 
 "Suzy thought he was actually really a friend. We had meals together, he spent holidays here, I mean, he was a friend, so I don't know what made him so angry," Taylor said. 
 
 Taylor's brother, Ken Taylor, said Brinkman may have become jealous because he wanted the relationship to be more than friendly. 
 
 "He always wanted more from my sister, and she was just trying to be nice to him," he said. Police confirmed Brinkman knew the victims but could not elaborate on the relationship, motive or evidence found at the crime scene. 
 
 "Motive is very difficult. Sometimes it's hard to establish what the motive is. You're asking me to know what went on in his mind and why. I do not know. We'll come to know that hopefully," Loeding said. 
 
 Maier said Brinkman was employed at the Johns's business and had recently been house sitting for them while they were on vacation. He was the ex-boyfriend of their daughter, Maier said. The murders in Stark County happened after the murders in North Royalton, according to Maier. 
 
 Brunswick Police said a U.S. Marshal's Office task force tracked Brinkman to a friend's home in Brunswick Monday night. Police officers entered the home Tuesday morning, using a taser on Brinkman who was taken to a hospital for evaluation before being transported to the North Royalton Police Department. 
 
 In 1999, Brinkman was convicted of several charges including receiving stolen property and unauthorized access to a computer. He served time in prison for violating the terms of community control in that case. 
 
 A vigil for the North Royalton victims is planned for 8:30 p.m. Wednesday in front of North Royalton High School.
– The suspect in a triple homicide in northern Ohio is actually believed to have killed a total of five people in a 24-hour period. After allegedly killing a mother and her two daughters in a North Royalton home, police believe 45-year-old George Brinkman Jr. murdered a Lake Township couple he'd been house-sitting for, per the Canton Repository. Stark County Sheriff George Maier says Brinkman's vehicle was seen in the driveway of Rogell and Roberta John's home after they returned from a vacation on Sunday. The next day around 4pm, Rogell John's son called 911 to report that he'd found his father, 71, and stepmother, 64, dead under blankets in their bedroom, their luggage "still by the stairs." Police say they'd been shot to death. Their deaths followed those of Suzanne Taylor, 45, and her daughters Taylor Pifer, 21, and Kylie Pifer, 18, who were found dead in bed on Sunday, though police believe they died Saturday. It isn't clear how her daughters died, but Taylor's throat had been cut, reports Fox 8. Relatives tell the station that Taylor and Brinkman were longtime friends who went to high school together. Brinkman was taken into custody for the triple homicide Tuesday after a standoff with police. Before his arrest, he briefly exchanged Facebook messages with a reporter, denying any involvement in the women's murders, per Cleveland.com. Stark County authorities later described Brinkman as a former boyfriend of the Johns' daughter who worked for a family business.