A family tragedy took place when a grandfather in Pennsylvania fatally shot eight people before he died by suidice in an apparent murder-suicide.
Police responded to reports of a shooting at a home in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Friday, October 9, around 5 p.m. Upon their arrival, officers found two women that had been fatally shot in the road outside the house. Meanwhile, seven additional victims, including the suspect, were found dead inside of the home.
“It was horrific. It was the worst scene I have ever experienced,” Erie Police Chief Rick Lorah said at a press conference following the tragedy, according to the New York Post. “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 10 because one of those individuals is pregnant.”
Lorah explained that eight of the people found dead were related to each other, including the shooter. Meanwhile, one of the victims who was found dead outside was a family friend.
“I think that mental health is at play here,” Lorah said. “I think it’s too soon to really go into a motive at this time.”
Officials told Erie News Now that the suspect was a 45-year-old grandfather, though his name has not been revealed.
The killer’s pregnant daughter, Angelina Stone, was among the victims. She was just days away from giving birth to her third baby, Kyrie. Stone’s two other kids — son Isiah, 5, and daughter Amari’anna, 22 months — were also killed by their grandfather.
Friends Lora Roberts and Twila Tanner have also been identified as two of the victims in online fundraising campaigns.
Roberts, 37, was a mother of five children, and she was engaged to her fiancé of 14 years. “Her sudden loss has left her loved ones facing heartbreak as well as immediate financial needs during an unimaginable time,” read a GoFundMe page set up to help her family.
Loved ones said that Tanner and Roberts rushed to the home to try to stop the shootings.
Tanner, 51, was “bravely trying to help a friend protect her family from a violent and dangerous individual,” according to a separate GoFundMe page.
The fundraiser claimed Tanner was fatally shot while trying to save Roberts’ niece from the violent attack. It’s believed that Roberts and Tanner were the last two people killed before the suspect died by suicide.
Authorities have not yet publicly identified the other victims of the attack and are in the process of notifying next of kin.
The Erie Police Department did not immediately respond to Us’ request for comment regarding updates in the case. The investigation into the murder-suicide remains ongoing.
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