Nine dead, including children, in mass shooting in Erie, Pennsylvania
A gunman killed eight people, including children, in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Friday and is believed to have then taken his own life. Police are still working to establish a motive.
Nine people, including children, died on Friday in a shooting outside and inside a home in Erie, a city in the northeastern US state of Pennsylvania. The dead include the suspected attacker. Mass shootings in the United States regularly renew debate over stricter gun control, which is why the case is drawing wide attention.
What happened
Police learned of the violence at about 5pm, when officers were sent to a residence after reports of gunfire. Witnesses said they had seen a man with a gun outside the property before he went in. Arriving officers found two women lying dead in the street with gunshot wounds.
Erie police and tactical units surrounded the house. More shots were heard from inside, and officers then entered. They found seven more victims, among them children, along with the suspected attacker. Investigators believe he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Police comments
Erie police chief Rick Lorah described the scene as one of the most distressing he had witnessed. He confirmed the suspect is dead and said that, based on current information, there is no ongoing threat to the public. Lorah said no words could adequately express the scale of the loss.
On Saturday, authorities said the circumstances were still under investigation and that they were trying to establish a motive. The city also said on social media that the shooter had died and the immediate danger had passed, calling the case a terrible tragedy.
Statistics
According to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonpartisan database, the Erie killings were at least the 19th mass murder in the US this year, defined as an incident in which four or more victims are killed. Many of those cases were family annihilations, in which an attacker kills several close relatives.
The archive also counts more than 500 mass shootings across the country since January, defined as incidents in which four or more people are shot, fatally or not. Congress has not passed the federal gun restrictions sought over the years.
