( CNN ) -- A man shot and killed seven patients and a nurse at a Carthage , North Carolina , nursing home Sunday before being wounded during a shootout with a police officer , authorities said . Relatives of the nursing home 's patients gathered at a nearby church , where they learned details of the shooting . Three other people , including the police officer and a visitor to the nursing home , were wounded in the attack , Carthage Police Chief Chris McKenzie said . The police officer was treated and released , McKenzie said . The slain patients ranged in age from 78 to 98 , Moore County District Attorney Maureen Krueger said . The man accused of carrying out the attack , 45-year-old Robert Stewart , was in custody , and his condition was unknown Sunday night , McKenzie said . Stewart was not an employee of the Pinelake Health and Rehab Center , and he did not appear to have been related to any of the patients , she said . `` There is still more to be uncovered as far as his purpose in being there , '' she said . A witness told CNN affiliate WRAL-TV that Stewart was armed with a rifle , a shotgun and other weapons . The officer who stopped him , Justin Garner , `` acted in nothing short of a heroic manner '' and probably stopped the carnage from being worse , Krueger said . Watch stunned community react » . Jerry Avant Sr. told WRAL that his son , Jerry Avant , a 39-year-old registered nurse , was the employee who was killed in the shooting . He said a doctor told him that his son had been shot more than two dozen times . Watch father of slain nurse and ex-wife of suspect react » . The doctor `` said he undoubtedly saved a lot of lives , '' Avant Sr. said , speaking of his son . Stewart faces eight counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony assault on a police officer , and other charges are pending , she said . Carthage is about 60 miles southwest of Raleigh . See map showing Carthage , Raleigh » . Sunday 's slayings were the latest in a series of high-profile in March , including the killings of 10 people by an Alabama man who was then killed by police . In addition , a man shot and killed a pastor in a southern Illinois church and stabbed two parishioners , and a 17-year-old in Germany killed 15 people in two small towns before dying in a shootout with police . In Carthage , crisis counselors were setting up in the town 's First Baptist Church to aid survivors of the latest killings . `` I do n't know the emotion entirely has set in , '' McKenzie said . `` This is a small community built on faith , and faith will get us through . ''
Slain patients ranged in age from 78 to 98 , district attorney says . Nurse also among those killed at nursing home in Carthage . Comment: Police officer also wounded in shooting .