Police: Erie gunman shot and killed 8, including 2 young kids and a pregnant woman, then himself
A gunman in Erie killed eight people Friday night, including two children and a pregnant woman, marking one of the worst mass shootings in Pennsylvania history.
Seven of the victims were members of the same family, police said. The eighth was a family friend.
The death of the alleged gunman, whose identity had not been released, brought the toll to nine. Authorities said he shot himself.
Erie police responded to a home on Perry Street within minutes of the first 911 call about 4:55 p.m. Friday. Chief Rick Lorah said investigators believe everyone inside the home was already dead by that point.
“When we arrived on scene, we did not hear a gunshot. We did not hear a cry for help. We did not see movement inside,” Lorah said at a media briefing late Saturday afternoon. “Had any of those been heard, we would have made entry immediately. Those officers were met with an eerie silence.”
Two women, 51 and 37 years old, were dead outside the home when police arrived.
Lorah said nearby cameras captured the women arriving at the home and it appeared “they knew something was going on at that house.”
He said the cameras captured three or four muffled gunshots coming from inside the home just before the women arrived. He said they appeared distressed and seemed to be seeking help from neighbors and banging on the door.
Lorah said footage shows the shooter coming out of the home, engaging with the women, and then shooting them as they moved toward him.
When officers ultimately made entry, they found the bodies of two children on the first floor: a 5-year-old boy and a girl roughly two months shy of turning 2.
Four other bodies were found on the stairs to the second floor: a 24-year-old woman, a 44-year-old woman, a 19-year-old man, and a 21-year-old man. Authorities said one of the women was about eight months pregnant. The unborn child also died.
The 45-year-old shooter was armed with a .40-caliber handgun that was registered to him, police said.
“Some scenes stay with you long after you leave them,” Lorah said. “This is one of those scenes.”
He declined to speculate on a motive but noted that all of the victims were connected to one family. He added, “I think that mental health is at play here, too.”
He said he believed some answers may be found on the cell phones of the two women killed outside the home.
“They knew something was going on at that house,” he said.
Erie Mayor Daria S. Devlin spoke directly to the victims’ family members.
“What happened to you was horrific, and there is nothing that any of us can say today that will make this any easier,” she said. “But you do need to know that the entire community is with you.”
Gov. Josh Shapiro said in a social media post late Saturday morning that he’d spoken with Devlin to offer his administration’s support.
“My heart breaks for this family,” he wrote. “Lori and I are praying for their loved ones and the entire Erie community.”
U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Butler, whose district includes Erie, said in a statement that he was praying for the community.
“May we hold the victims, their families, and those impacted by this tragedy in our hearts.”
The incident appears to be one of the worst mass shootings in Pennsylvania history. A former prison guard went on a shooting spree in Wilkes-Barre in 1982, killing 13 people in total: Seven children, including five of his own, their mothers, their relatives and one bystander. And 11 congregants were killed in the antisemitic attack on The Tree of Life synagogue in Squirrel Hill in 2018.
