WEBSTER, N.Y. (AP) -
By JOHN KEKIS
Associated Press
An ex-con set a car and a
house ablaze in his lakeside neighborhood to lure firefighters, then
opened fire on them, killing two, engaging in a shootout with police and
committing suicide while several houses burned. Authorities used an
armored vehicle to evacuate the area.
The gunman fired at the four firefighters when they
arrived shortly after 5:30 a.m. at the blaze in Webster, a suburb of
Rochester on Lake Ontario, town Police Chief Gerald Pickering said. The
first police officer who arrived chased the suspect and exchanged
gunfire, authorities said.
"It does appear it was a trap" for the first
responders to the fire, Pickering said at a midday news conference. His
motive wasn't clear.
The gunman, William Spengler, had served more than
17 years in prison for beating his 92-year-old grandmother to death in
1980 at the house next to where Monday's attack happened, Pickering said
at a briefing later in the afternoon. Spengler, 62, was paroled in 1998
and had led a quiet life since, authorities said. Convicted felons are
not allowed to possess weapons.
Police say lay in wait for the firefighters'
arrival, then opened fire from outdoors, probably with a rifle and from
atop an earthen berm.
Two firefighters, one of whom was also a town
police lieutenant, died at the scene, and two others were hospitalized. A
fifth man who was passing by was also injured. The police officer who
exchanged gunfire with Spengler and "in all likelihood saved many
lives," Pickering said.
Seven houses were destroyed in the blaze, Pickering
said, and police have not been able to get inside the houses to
determine if there are any more victims. They said Spengler's
67-year-old sister Cheryl Spengler was unaccounted for. He lived in the
house with his sister and mother, Arline, who died in October.
The West Webster Fire District learned of the fire
early Monday after a report of a car and house on fire on Lake Road, on a
narrow peninsula where Irondequoit Bay meets Lake Ontario, Monroe
County Sheriff Patrick O'Flynn said.
The fire appeared from a distance as a pulsating
ball of flame glowing against the early morning sky, flames licking into
treetops and reflecting on the water, with huge bursts of smoke
billowing away in a brisk wind.
Two of the firefighters arrived on a fire engine
and two in their own vehicles, Pickering said. After Spengler fired, one
of the wounded men managed to flee, but the other three couldn't
because of flying gunfire.
A police armored vehicle was used to recover two of
the men, and eventually it evacuated 33 people from nearby homes, the
police chief said. The gunfire initially kept firefighters from battling
the blazes.
"These people get up in the middle of the night to go put out fires; they don't expect to be shot and killed," Pickering said.
The dead men were identified as Police Lt. Michael
Chiapperini, 43, the Webster Police Department's public information
officer; and Tomasz Kaczowka, also a 911 dispatcher, whose age was not
released.
Pickering described Chiapperini as a "lifetime
firefighter" with nearly 20 years with the department, and called
Kaczowka a "tremendous young man."
The two wounded firefighters, Joseph Hofsetter and
Theodore Scardino, were in guarded condition in the intensive care unit
at Strong Memorial Hospital, authorities said. Both were awake and alert
and are expected to recover.
Hofsetter, also a full-timer with the Rochester
Fire Department, was hit once in the pelvis, and the bullet lodged in
his spine, authorities said. Scardino was hit in the chest and knee.
Monday's shooting and fires were in a neighborhood
of seasonal and year-round homes set close together across the road from
the lakeshore. The area is popular with recreational boaters but is
normally quiet this time of year.
"We have very few calls for service in that
location," Pickering said. "Webster is a tremendous community. We are a
safe community, and to have a tragedy befall us like this is just
horrendous."
O'Flynn lamented the violence, which comes on the
heels of other shootings including the massacre of 20 students and six
adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
"It's sad to see that that this is becoming more commonplace in communities across the nation," O'Flynn said.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the State Police and Office of Emergency Management were working with local authorities.
"Volunteer firefighters and police officers were
injured and two were taken from us as they once again answered the call
of duty," Cuomo said in a statement. "We as the community of New York
mourn their loss as now two more families must spend the holidays
without their loved ones."
Webster, a middle-class suburb, now is the scene of violence linked to house fires for two Decembers in a row.
Last Dec. 7, authorities say, a 15-year-old boy
doused his home with gasoline and set it ablaze, killing his father and
two brothers, 16 and 12. His mother and 13-year-old sister escaped with
injuries. He is being prosecuted as an adult.
___
Associated Press writers Chris Carola, George Walsh and Mary Esch in Albany, N.Y., contributed to this report.
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