Gunman Kills Eight, Including Two Children and a Pregnant Woman, in Erie, Pennsylvania Mass Shooting

Erie, Pennsylvania: Nine people, including the gunman, were killed in a mass shooting at a home in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Friday evening, authorities said. Two young children and a pregnant woman were among the dead.

Erie Police Chief Rick Lorah said the 45-year-old gunman was related to seven of the victims. The eighth was a friend of the pregnant woman. The gunman died of what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Investigators determined that all the deaths occurred before officers reached the scene.

The shooting took place shortly before 5 p.m. on Friday, October 9, at a residence in the 700 block of Perry Street on the city’s East Side. According to police, video and audio evidence captured muffled gunshots inside the home just before two distressed women arrived at the house and sought help from neighbours. Officers responding to an alert from the city’s ShotSpotter gunshot detection system arrived within minutes. They found the two women, aged 51 and 37, shot dead outside.

Police SWAT officers later breached the home and sent in a robot to survey the interior before entering. Inside, they found the bodies of a 5-year-old boy, a 1-year-old girl, two women, two young men and the gunman, who still had a firearm on him. The city said no further shots were fired after police arrived.

Authorities have not identified a motive.

Chief Lorah said he was not sure the city had ever seen such loss of life and devastation. Erie Mayor Daria Devlin praised the responding officers, saying they faced unimaginable circumstances and carried out their duties with courage and professionalism.

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro said he had spoken with Mayor Devlin and offered his administration’s full support after what he called a tragic mass shooting that took the lives of nine Pennsylvanians.

Erie is located about 190 kilometres north of Pittsburgh, on the shore of Lake Erie.