{"id":252433,"date":"2026-07-26T15:37:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T15:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/252433\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T15:37:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T15:37:07","slug":"father-of-4-killed-in-tragic-shooting-was-celebrating-40th-birthday-with-wife-family-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/252433\/","title":{"rendered":"Father of 4 killed in &#8220;tragic&#8221; shooting was celebrating 40th birthday with wife, family says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A father of four killed in a shooting in a Put-in-Bay, Ohio, bar was celebrating his 40th birthday with his wife, his family said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The 39-year-old man from Chesterland was shot multiple times on July 23 at Mr. Ed&#8217;s Bar and Grille on Delaware Avenue just after midnight, according to the Put-in-Bay Police Department. First responders attempted life-saving measures, but the man, identified as Robert Russell by CBS affiliate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wtol.com\/article\/news\/local\/family-identifies-man-killed-in-put-in-bay-bar-shooting-as-chesterland-husband-father-rob-russell\/512-8fab1e24-bfaa-4d70-805b-59040c753006\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-absolute=\"true\">WTOL<\/a>, was pronounced dead at the scene.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Hours later, 21-year-old Colton Smith of Michigan was arrested and charged with murder with a firearm specification, the news outlet reported. Authorities did not release many details about the incident, including a motive or what led up to the shooting, though the two men did not appear to know each other.\u00a0  <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There was no altercation,&#8221; the victim&#8217;s sister, Christi Russell, told WTOL. &#8220;He was simply enjoying a night out with his wife.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Robert Russell, whose 40th birthday was on July 24, was a father of three boys and one girl. His wife, Lindsay, said he was &#8220;much more than a husband and father.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He was a constant presence, a source of strength, a comforting hand, a helping hand, a perseverer, a man of unwavering faith and a father who intentionally led and loved his family and children toward Christ every single day,&#8221; she said in a statement to WTOL. &#8220;The void he leaves behind is immeasurable.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In a statement on its Facebook page, Mr. Ed&#8217;s called the shooting &#8220;tragic&#8221; and &#8220;senseless,&#8221; saying it &#8220;has deeply affected all of us.&#8221; The bar was closed on July 23 to allow people to grieve Russell&#8217;s death and process what happened. It reopened on July 24.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our hearts are with the victim, their loved ones, everyone who witnessed this tragedy, and all those whose lives have been touched by this senseless act of violence,&#8221; a statement said, in part.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>WTOL reported that July 23&#8217;s shooting was the first homicide in Put-in-Bay since 2011. The investigation into the shooting continues.<\/p>\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A father of four killed in a shooting in a Put-in-Bay, Ohio, bar was celebrating his 40th birthday&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[31,293,73,75,74,220],"class_list":["post-252433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-crime","tag-ohio","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-shooting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}