A gunman related to his victims killed eight people, including a 1-year-old, a 5-year-old, and a woman eight months pregnant, at an Erie, Pennsylvania home before taking his own life.
Erie police say the 45-year-old shooter opened fire at a house on 7th and Perry Streets on Friday, murdering seven family members and one family friend, then died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Officers answered a ShotSpotter alert about shots fired around 4:50 p.m. and later found the dead inside and outside the home.
ABC News reported that the victims ranged in age from 1 to 51, and that one of the women killed inside was eight months pregnant. Police initially referred to nine victims; authorities did not say whether that count included the gunman.
No motive has been released. The investigation is continuing.
Chief Rick Lorah told reporters Saturday that doorbell cameras captured two women outside the house, a sister-in-law and a family friend, pounding on the door before the shots.
Lorah described what police believe happened next.
"We believe that the shooter comes out and calls towards the two females. They run towards, and then he then he shoots them,"
Those two were killed outside. Inside, officers later found a 5-year-old boy and a 1-year-old girl dead on the first floor. On a second-floor stairwell lay four more victims: a 24-year-old woman, a 44-year-old woman, a 19-year-old man, and a 21-year-old man. The gunman was found on the second floor with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. A.40-caliber handgun registered to him was at the scene.
Lorah did not hide what his officers walked into.
"It was horrific. It was the worst scene I have ever experienced,"
Police said every death happened before officers arrived. No more shots were fired between their arrival and the time SWAT went in.
Lorah pushed back on any suggestion that police should have stormed the house sooner. He said his officers heard nothing and saw no movement that would have forced an immediate entry without a warrant.
"We did not hear a cry for help. We did not see movement inside. Had any of those been heard, we would have made entry immediately. Those officers were met with an eerie silence when they arrived there,"
After getting a warrant, the SWAT team entered, located the victims, and found the shooter dead upstairs.
Mayor Daria Devlin said authorities held back details at first because other relatives were not at the house. Overnight, officers carried out the notifications.
"So our officers during the night had to do the terrible work of notifying families. And again, when we think about the order of what we're worried about, the public safety, the families first, and then giving the rest of the information,"
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro released a statement Saturday morning after speaking with Devlin and offering support. He called the attack a mass shooting.
"My heart breaks for this family. Lori and I are praying for their loved ones and the entire Erie community,"
Neighbors and residents gathered Saturday night for a memorial near the scene. Police have not named the gunman or the victims, and they have released no further information on a motive.
Eight people are gone, two of them little children, one of them a mother-to-be, because a man who shared their blood and their address chose slaughter over anything else. That is the whole of it, and it is enough.
