Two volunteer firefighters were killed and two others seriously injured when they were ambushed with gunfire while responding to a house and car fire in western New York -- what police now believe was a Christmas Eve trap set up by a shooter who had once served time for beating his grandmother to death with a hammer.
Webster police identified the gunman Monday afternoon as William Spengler, 62, and said he died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Spengler had served nearly 18 years in jail for killing his 92-year-old grandmother in 1980 at the house next to where Monday's attack happened, and he had a "lengthy criminal record," police said. After serving time for manslaughter in his grandmother's killing, police said he was on parole until 2006 and could not legally own a gun. A motive for Monday's shooting was unclear.
"He laid in wait with armament and shot first responders," Webster Police Chief Gerald Pickering said.
Four firefighters were fired on "probably with a rifle" from an earthen berm and all hit as they responded to the fire at 5:35 a.m., Pickering said. One fled the scene in his own car, and the other three were pinned down until a SWAT team arrived.
Police chased the shooter and exchanged gunfire with him, Pickering said. The shooter's body was found outside one of the houses.
"These people get up in the middle of the night to go and put out fires," Pickering said of responding firefighters. "They don't expect to be shot and killed."
Comment: Who is Adam Lanza?