A gunman killed seven members of his family and a family friend at a residence in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Friday evening before dying from what investigators believe was a self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said.
The victims ranged in age from 22 months to 44 years old and included two young children and a woman who was eight months pregnant, according to Erie police.
Erie Police Chief Rick Lorah described the incident as a horrific scene, saying it was the worst he had ever encountered in his career, reports NBC News.
Police were dispatched to the residence shortly before 5pm Friday after receiving a ShotSpotter alert indicating that two gunshots had been fired, Lorah said during a news conference on Saturday.
Upon arriving at the scene, officers discovered two women, aged 51 and 37, dead outside the house. According to Lorah, footage from a neighbor’s Ring doorbell camera showed the women arriving at the residence in apparent distress. The video captured them seeking help from neighbors and repeatedly pounding on the door.
Investigators also reviewed audio from the footage, which appeared to capture muffled gunfire coming from inside the house before the suspected shooter emerged and fatally shot both women, the police chief said.
According to Lorah, the gunman then returned inside the residence. Witnesses reported hearing no additional gunshots afterward.
When officers arrived, they detected no movement inside the house and were unable to make contact with anyone inside. Authorities could not immediately determine whether anyone remained in the residence or whether that person posed a threat, Lorah explained.
Police eventually deployed a SWAT team, whose officers breached several doors and sent a robot into the house. The robot located multiple victims, prompting officers to enter the residence, the chief said.
Investigators later determined that all the victims had been killed before officers entered the home. The suspected shooter had also died from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound before police arrived.
Lorah said eight of the deceased, including the suspected gunman, were related to one another, while one of the two women found dead outside was a family friend. The other woman’s relationship to the family was not specified in his account. One of the victims found inside the house was eight months pregnant.
“It’s a family,” Lorah said.
Two young children — a five-year-old boy and a 22-month-old girl — were found on the first floor of the residence.
Four additional victims were discovered in a stairwell on the second floor. They were identified by age and gender as a 24-year-old woman, a 44-year-old woman, a 19-year-old man and a 21-year-old man.
The suspected shooter, a 45-year-old man whose identity had not been publicly released, was found dead on the second floor. Officers recovered a .40-caliber handgun registered to him, which Lorah said was found on his person.
The police chief confirmed that all the victims discovered inside the residence lived there. The two women found dead outside the house were not residents.
Investigators are continuing to examine the circumstances that led to the shooting, including what may have prompted the violence. Lorah said it was too early to establish a motive, although he believed mental health issues may have played a role.
Authorities also plan to investigate what the two women found outside the residence knew before they arrived. Lorah said investigators would need to examine their cellphones to determine what information they may have had about the situation inside the house.
“They knew something was going on at that house,” he said.
Describing the moments surrounding the deaths of the two women, Lorah said investigators believed the gunman came outside and called toward them. The women then ran toward him, after which he shot them, according to the chief’s account.
Pennsylvania Gov Josh Shapiro said he had spoken with Erie Mayor Daria Devlin and offered the full support of his administration in response to the tragedy.
“My heart breaks for this family,” Shapiro wrote on X. He added that he and his wife, Lori, were praying for the victims’ loved ones and the wider Erie community.
Erie is located approximately 128 miles north of Pittsburgh.
