A shooting in a residential area of Erie, Pennsylvania, left nine dead including two children, a pregnant woman and the suspected shooter, authorities said.
Erie Police Chief Rick Lorah said the 45-year-old male gunman was related to seven of the victims in Friday's shooting, while the eighth was a friend of the pregnant woman.
Video and audio evidence recovered by investigators showed two “distressed” women arriving at the home shortly before 5 p.m. and pounding on the door, he said. The gunman then came out and shot them before returning inside.
Police arrived to find the two women dead outside. Inside they found the bodies of a 5-year-old boy, a 1-year-old girl, two more women, two young men and the shooter.
Lorah declined to discuss motive but said investigators would talk to other relatives and examine the cellphones of the women who were killed outside the home.
“They knew something was going on at that house,” he said. “We have to figure out what that is.”
Officers are said to have arrived within minutes of receiving an alert via ShotSpotter, a controversial gunshot detection system that relies on artificial intelligence and a network of microphones to identify gunshots. The city said in a statement that no additional shots were fired after that.
“Sounds heard during the police response that may have been mistaken for gunfire were flash bangs associated with law enforcement's tactical response,” the city said.
“I have not seen anything like this in my 28-plus years,” Lorah told a local news station earlier in the day. “I’m not sure that the city of Erie has ever seen the loss of life and the devastation that we just witnessed.”
Gov. Josh Shapiro said he offered his administration's “full support” to Erie Mayor Daria Devlin.
Erie is about 120 miles (190 kilometers) north of Pittsburgh.
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This story corrects that the total number of people found dead — nine — includes the suspected shooter.
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Jacqueline GaNun is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
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