Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
Nine people, including two children and the shooter, were killed in a shooting at a home in Erie, Pennsylvania, late Friday, local authorities said.
The man shot eight people before apparently taking his own life, AFP reported, quoting local media reports. Erie is about 188 kilometres north of Pittsburgh, a major city in the US state.
Police were called around 5 pm following reports of gunfire and found two women dead in the street, according to Erie News Now.
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The shooter then barricaded himself inside the home as officers surrounded the building and ordered him to come out.
More gunshots were heard during the standoff. When police entered the home, they found the remaining victims, including the two children. The shooter had an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, the outlet reported, citing police.
City authorities said on Saturday that all nine deaths occurred before officers arrived and that there was no ongoing threat to the public.
Erie Police Chief Rick Lorah said he had not witnessed anything comparable in more than 28 years.
“I’m not sure that the city of Erie has ever seen the loss of life and the devastation that we just witnessed,” he told a local news station.
Officers who responded to the scene were being offered counselling, local media reported.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro called the incident a “tragic mass shooting” and said he had spoken with Erie Mayor Daria Devlin to offer his administration’s full support.
The incident adds to recurring mass shootings in the United States, where firearms outnumber people and efforts to tighten gun laws face political and legal hurdles.
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
