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发帖数: 37081 | 1 http://news.yahoo.com/man-killed-2-firemen-left-note-killing-pl
WEBSTER, N.Y. (AP) — The ex-con who lured firefighters to their deaths in a
blaze of gunfire left a rambling typewritten note saying he wanted to burn
down the neighborhood and "do what I like doing best, killing people,"
police said Tuesday.
Police Chief Gerald Pickering said 62-year-old William Spengler, who served
17 years in prison for the 1980 hammer slaying of his grandmother, armed
himself with a revolver, a shotgun and a military-style rifle before he set
his house afire to lure first responders into a death trap before dawn on
Christmas Eve.
Two firefighters were shot dead and two others are hospitalized in stable
condition. Spengler killed himself as seven houses burned around him Monday
on a narrow spit of land along Lake Ontario.
One of the guns recovered was a military-style .223-caliber semiautomatic
Bushmaster rifle with flash suppression, the same make and caliber weapon
used in the elementary school massacre in Newtown, Conn., Pickering said.
The chief said police believe the firefighters were hit with shots from the
rifle given the distance but the investigation was incomplete.
The two- to three-page typewritten note left by Spengler didn't give a
motive for the shootings, Pickering said. He declined to divulge the note's
full content or say where it was found, but read one line from it: "I still
have to get ready to see how much of the neighborhood I can burn down, and
do what I like doing best, killing people."
Pickering said authorities were still looking for Spengler's 67-year-old
sister, Cheryl Spengler, who lived in the house with him. Their mother,
Arline, also lived there until she died in October.
About 100 people attended an impromptu memorial vigil Monday evening in
Webster, a suburb of Rochester. Dozens of bouquets were left at the fire
station, along with a handwritten sign that said, "Thanks for protecting us.
RIP."
Spengler fired at the four firefighters when they arrived shortly after 5:30
a.m. Monday to put out the fire, Pickering said. The first police officer
who arrived chased the gunman and exchanged shots.
Authorities said Spengler hadn't done anything to bring himself to their
attention since his parole. As a convicted felon, he wasn't allowed to
possess weapons. Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley said
Spengler led a very quiet life after he got out of prison.
A friend said Spengler hated his sister. Roger Vercruysse lived next door to
Spengler and recalled a man who doted on his mother, whose obituary
suggested contributions to the West Webster Fire Department.
"He loved his mama to death," said Vercruysse, who last saw his friend about
six months ago.
Vercruysse also said Spengler "couldn't stand his sister" and "stayed on one
side of the house and she stayed on the other."
The West Webster Fire District learned of the fire 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.
Emergency radio communications capture someone saying he "could see the
muzzle flash coming at me" as Spengler carried out his ambush. The audio
posted on the website RadioReference.com has someone reporting "firefighters
are down" and saying "got to be rifle or shotgun - high powered ... semi or
fully auto."
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 fled,
but the other three couldn't because of flying gunfire.
The police officer who exchanged gunfire with Spengler "in all likelihood
saved many lives," Pickering said.
A police armored vehicle was used to recover two men, and eventually it
removed 33 people from nearby homes, the police chief said. The gunfire
initially kept firefighters from battling the blazes.
The dead men were identified as police Lt. Michael Chiapperini, 43, the
Webster Police Department's public information officer; and 19-year-old
Tomasz Kaczowka, also a 911 dispatcher.
Pickering described Chiapperini as a "lifetime firefighter" with nearly 20
years in the department, and he called Kaczowka a "tremendous young man."
Kaczowka's brother, reached at the family home Monday night, said he didn't
want to talk.
The two wounded firefighters, Joseph Hofstetter and Theodore Scardino, were
in stable condition Tuesday at Strong Memorial Hospital, the chief said.
Both were awake and alert and are expected to recover.
Hofstetter, 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.
Cathy Bartlett was at a vigil Monday night with her teenage son, who was
good friends with Kaczowka. Bartlett's husband, Mark Bartlett, has been a
firefighter there for 25 years but missed the call this morning.
"Thank God my husband slept through the first alarm and didn't get up until
the second one went off," she said.
The 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."
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. |
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