The killer who carried out a mass murder-suicide in Pennsylvania was identified as a grandfather, who killed nine people, including his young grandchildren and pregnant daughter, relatives said, according to the New York Post. Around 5 pm on Friday night, October 9, police responded to reports of a shooting at a home in the city of Erie. They discovered two women fatally shot in the road outside the house, along with six additional victims and the deceased suspect.
The suspect, 45, has yet to be fully identified. He was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot in the family home.
The suspect initially launched a shooting spree inside the house. He then stepped outside to shoot two more women dead, aged 51 and 37, who rushed to the scene, before going back inside and killing himself, police said.
Among those who died was Angelina Stone, the gunman’s pregnant daughter who was days away from giving birth to her third child, Kyrie. The unborn baby has been added to the death toll, making the number of victims nine.
Angelina’s two other children – son Isiah, 5, and daughter Amari’anna, almost 2 – were also murdered. The shooter killed eight family members in all, as well as a female friend of Angelina’s.
The father of one of Angelina’s slain children told Erie News Now that the gunman was his onetime partner’s dad.
{{/usCountry}}The father of one of Angelina’s slain children told Erie News Now that the gunman was his onetime partner’s dad.
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“It was my baby, bro, and he just took her,” Ezekiel said. “Her name was Amari’anna. She’s the most beautiful baby God could have created.”
Stone, who had named her unborn baby Kyrie, was set to deliver him Wednesday.
“She was pregnant, about to have a baby in a couple of days and she had a daughter that was almost two, and her son Isaiah, who I believe was four or five,” Ezekiel’s sister Lisa Simmers told the outlet. “They are all just beautiful children and definitely did not deserve what happened to them.”
Erie cops have not yet suggested a motive. They said on Sunday, October 11, that identifications were being held because “surviving family members are still being notified.”
What we know about the shooting
The tragedy took place on the 700 block of Perry Street, located on Erie’s East Side.
The victims of the tragedy included a 5-year-old boy and a 1-year-old girl on the first floor; two women, including a 24-year-old and a 44-year-old, and two men, ages 19 and 21, in the second-floor stairwell. Meanwhile, two women, 51 ans 37, were found outside.
The suspect reportedly shot himself later. A firearm was subsequently found on him.
“It was horrific. It was the worst scene I have ever experienced,” Erie Police Chief Rick Lorah said at a press conference.
“We said that there were a devastating amount of people inside there. There’s more than five. We were not sure at that point we could say ten because one of those individuals is pregnant,” he added.
Lorah confirmed that no gunshots were fired after officers arrived, adding that loud noises heard during the police response were from flashbang devices used by the SWAT team.
Police said camera footage they recovered from a next-door neighbor’s home showed two women arriving at the house, appearing to be panicking and in distress. They were seen pacing and pounding on the door to get someone’s attention.
“We received a Ring doorbell camera from a residence right next door that also records audio,” said Lorah.
“And in that is where we were able to see those two females pacing back and forth outside the residence, they were trying to get neighbor’s attention, they were pounding on the door,” he added. “We hear what we believe to be what we assume to be muffled gunshots in that audio, very faintly, scream, and a few shots fired and that’s where we believe those two outside victims were hit.”
Gov. Josh Shapiro spoke at a Saturday campaign event about the mass murder-suicide and the ambush of two Philadelphia cops.
“Today has been a dark day across this commonwealth,” the Democrat said.