Ohio State janitor left behind note telling woman, ’sorry I let you down’

Ohio State shooter left note, tells woman ’sorry’

COLUMBUS, Ohio — An Ohio State janitor who shot two supervisors in a campus maintenance shop before killing himself left behind a brief handwritten note directed to a woman named Donna that said “sorry I let you down,” according to documents released Thursday.

Nathaniel Brown, 50, who had recently received a bad job evaluation and was upset over his pending dismissal, scribbled out another note that appears to be a will. That note said, “ever thing I have Donna J. Dunson-Grrald-J can have.”

Records show Brown, who fatally shot a supervisor in Tuesday’s attack, injured another and then killed himself, shared the same address with a woman named Donna Dunson, but their relationship is unclear. Messages left at the home seeking comment were not immediately returned.

Police have not said where the notes were discovered. Contents of the notes were first reported by The Columbus Dispatch and later released by the Franklin County coroner’s office.

Campus Police Chief Paul Denton scheduled a news conference Thursday afternoon in what the school called a final update on the case.

Police have not described a motive for the shooting, although Denton has called it work-related.

Many questions remain unanswered, including where Brown got the two handguns used in the shootings and how his criminal past went undetected.

Ohio State hired an outside vendor, OPENonline LLC in Columbus, to conduct a background check on Brown, who spent about five years in prison in the 1970s and 1980s for receiving stolen property, according to court and prison records.

But the agency’s report turned up no criminal records on Brown, who denied on his September job application that he had been convicted of a crime.

Angela Bosworth, an executive vice president with OPENonline, has said the company is reviewing what happened and that Brown may have given Ohio State an incorrect birth date. The problem could also be a data entry error.

Ohio State sent Brown a letter March 2, stating that his probationary employment would end Saturday because of poor performance. Supervisors complained he was tardy, slept on the job and had problems following instructions.

One of Brown’s shooting victims, building services manager Larry Wallington, 48, died at the scene. Preliminary autopsy results show he had multiple gunshot wounds to the head and neck.

The other victim, shift leader Henry Butler, 60, has been released from a hospital. He has not commented publicly on the shooting.

Brown, whom police found in a garage bay at the maintenance shop, died of a single gunshot wound to the head, the coroner’s office said.

Associated Press writer Doug Whiteman in Columbus contributed to this report.