Sheriff’s deputies had been called to the property nearly two dozen times in recent years — including once earlier in the day Monday — before Charles P. Steadman Sponaugle, 52, opened fire on his family members, Louisa sheriff’s Maj. Donnie Lowe said.

Sponaugle fired at two deputies and unleashed his pit bull at them before deputies responded, fatally shooting both Sponaugle and the dog, said Corinne Geller, a Virginia State Police spokeswoman.

Deputies had been called out to the property Monday and a dispute was resolved. But they were called again when Sponaugle opened fire with a .22-caliber semiautomatic target pistol, Geller said.

Sponaugle shot and killed his son, Charles P. Steadman, 29, and nephew Mark A. Cooper Jr., 23. Also shot were his sister, Kitty L. Cooper, 41; brother-in-law Mark A. Cooper Sr., 45; and nephews Gerald A. Steadman Jr., 26, and Jason C. Steadman, 27.

Jason Steadman was flown to the University of Virginia Medical Center with life-threatening injuries. Gerald Steadman was held overnight for observation, and Kitty and Mark Cooper Sr. were treated and released.

P.T. Spencer, a member of the Louisa County Board of Supervisors, said Monday that Sponaugle and two other relatives had an ongoing dispute over a 1.5-acre lot.

“We’ve had problems with them,” Spencer said of Sponaugle’s family.

Geller said there were multiple residences on the property, and that Sponaugle lived at the home where the shootings took place.

Since 2001, deputies had been called out to the property 23 times, but the disputes had never gotten physical, Lowe said.

On Monday, several people gathered outside the weathered mobile home with boarded-up windows, telling reporters to leave the property, located off a dirt road.