A 45-year-old man opened fire at an Erie, Pennsylvania home Friday and killed eight people, including young children, before taking his own life, police said.
Erie Police Chief Rick Lorah said video and audio captured muffled gunshots inside the house shortly before 5 p.m. Two distressed women then arrived and pounded on the door. Lorah said the man came outside, shot them as they ran toward him, and went back in.
Responding officers found those two women dead outside. After sending in a drone and a robot, they entered and found more bodies, including a 5-year-old boy and a 1-year-old girl. Eight people were killed at the home, about 120 miles north of Pittsburgh, and authorities have not released the man's name.
Lorah said the 45-year-old man was related to seven of the eight people killed. The eighth, he said, was a friend of a pregnant woman in the household.
Police have not made the names of the dead public. Investigators recovered the video and audio, and Lorah said they still had to learn what the two women outside already seemed to know.
Lorah said the recordings picked up the gunfire inside first. Then the women showed up in distress and banged on the door. They ran toward the man. He shot them, then returned to the house.
Officers found both women dead outside before they ever got through the door. Lorah said investigators planned to examine their cellphones and talk with relatives. He also said the pair knew something was going on at that house, and that police had to figure out what that was.
The interior search came next. Officers found the 5-year-old boy and the 1-year-old girl on the first floor, two more women and two young men in a stairwell, and the shooter on the second floor, the same hard recovery families have seen in other killings, including a Kansas City shooting case.
Erie Police Chief Rick Lorah said, in comments Newsmax reported:
"Out of respect for the victims and the families, I will not discuss the details of what our officers encountered inside that home,"
He also told the city to understand the gravity of what happened and the impact on the people involved. He declined to discuss motive. He suggested mental health could be a factor, not as a proven cause.
The Washington Examiner reported that Gov. Josh Shapiro said Saturday that nine people are dead after the Friday shooting in Erie. That count matches eight people killed and the 45-year-old man dead by his own hand.
Julius Windham stood Sunday at a memorial outside the home. He said his 1-year-old daughter, Amarianna, was among those killed. Mourners left candles, flowers, and stuffed animals on the lawn.
Windham wore a T-shirt with pictures of the women and children and the words "Forever In My Heart." He described the 45-year-old man as a grandfather who never seemed distressed or out of the ordinary.
Windham said:
"I think that was a front for him,"
He said the man smiled every day, and that no one would have thought this would happen. He also said words could not explain what he was going through, and that he had to be strong for his family and his community.
Nicole Eller and Debra Eller said they had a best friend among those killed and had known the family for more than 30 years. Nicole Eller said the man was a good guy, and then he started going downhill with everything.
Debra Eller said:
"Oh my gosh, this is so upsetting. This should have never happened to her or the kids or anybody. His grandchildren, his kids, how can you do that?"
She also called them a lovely family and asked who would have thought this would ever happen. That is the same question hanging over other recent murders, including an Arizona murder case that left a community asking how the killing was possible.
Police still have not released an official list of the dead. Windham’s account placed his toddler, the child’s pregnant mother, the mother’s 5-year-old son, and an unborn baby among those remembered at the memorial. Lorah did not settle whether that unborn child was part of the official count of eight.
Fox News reported that the pregnant woman was Angelina Stone, eight months pregnant and four days from giving birth, and that she was killed along with children Isiah and Amari’anna and an unborn baby, Kyrie. That outlet also described the 45-year-old man as the family patriarch, related to seven of the eight people killed, with the eighth a family friend.
Those identifications have not come from a police release. They sit beside Lorah’s account of a 1-year-old girl and a 5-year-old boy found on the first floor, and beside Windham’s naming of Amarianna. The killing of a mother and her children is the kind of case readers have also followed in the Sonya Massey killing coverage.
Mayor Daria Devlin spoke Saturday and addressed the families directly. She said she was deeply sorry.
Devlin said:
"Our entire community is with you, we're grieving with you. And we are here to support you."
Sunday’s memorial made that grief visible. Windham stood in the shirt with the children’s pictures. Neighbors set down toys and flowers. Families in other recent death stories, including public mourning after a sudden death, know how little those tributes can fill the hole.
What police have said, and what they have not, is now the record. A 45-year-old man opened fire in an Erie home. Eight people were killed. He died by his own hand. Two women who came to that door never made it inside. Children were found on the first floor. Relatives said he had been smiling, and that he had been sliding downhill. Lorah would not give a motive.
Law and order starts before the drone goes through the door. It starts when danger in a household is treated as real.
