US, Massachusetts - A wild shootout erupted yesterday morning in a usually quiet Chicopee neighborhood as police returned fire against a crazed gunman who unleashed a hail of bullets from a house, shattering windows, piercing cruisers and wounding a state trooper before police found him dead inside once the gunsmoke settled, officials and witnesses said.

Springfield resident Carlos Laguer, 41, has a long record and a violent past, according to police, and used a high-powered rifle to create pandemonium after he barged into a West Street house.

A man inside fled while screaming "get away from me."

"The guy looked scared," Joseph Kacznyski, 47, a disabled Iraq veteran, said of the man running from the gun-wielding intruder. "All of a sudden, he tore off a few rounds at me and (the man running). I heard a bullet whiz by my head."

"People were running for their lives," said Ward Hamilton, 41, a driver for Central Oil, who raced from his office after hearing the first of what he estimated were 30 rounds fired. "He was just randomly shooting at anyone and anything."

That's when a woman yelled that a police officer was shot. Her cry for help prompted Hamilton, a former Connecticut state cop, to run into danger to help downed Trooper John Vasquez, 44, a 20-year veteran who managed to escape from his bullet riddled cruiser.

"The whole left side of his cruiser was strafed and the guy just kept shooting at him," Hamilton said. Another trooper held his injured comrade's bleeding leg while Hamilton helped apply pressure to the wound as they hid behind a police cruiser. The two rescuers scooped Vazquez into a Chicopee cruiser and he was taken to Bay State Medical Center. State Police Col. Marian McGovern said Vazquez underwent surgery for bullet wounds to his right hand and lower left leg.

Police said Laguer, found dead from two gunshot wounds inside the first-floor apartment, had a connection to a woman and boy who lived there. Both escaped unharmed. Police were unsure if Laguer shot himself or was struck by police bullets or both.

"This could have been a disaster of incredible proportions. There were many school children in harm's way. Lots of pedestrians and customers at the convenience store and, as you all can see behind me, a tankful of gasoline that could have exploded on gunfire," said Chicopee Mayor Michael D. Bissonnette.