Babylon
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- Feb 5, 2009
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- Three victims shot dead before gunman killed by state troopers during shoot-out
- Gunman identified as Jeffrey Lee Michael, 44, of Hollidaysburg
- One female victim had been decorating a church hall for a children's Christmas party
A lone gunman went on a shooting rampage in rural Pennsylvania that left four dead, including a woman who was fatally shot while decorating a church for a children's Christmas party, before state troopers killed him in a firefight.
The gunman has been identified as 44-year-old Jeffrey Lee Michael of Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. The victims are Kimberly A. Scott, 58, William Harrison Rhodes Jr., 38, and his father-in-law, Kenneth Lynn.
Michael's first victim was reportedly Scott, of Duncansville, who was decorating Juniata Valley Gospel Church in Frankstown Township for Christmas Friday morning when shots rang out and bullets pierced through a window.
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Michael entered the church and shot Scott, then fled in a truck, leaving another woman who was with her unharmed.
Michael then allegedly shot Rhodes and Lynn in the driveway of a home after a confrontation at a stop sign, one of the men's cousins, Marie Brenneman, told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
'This person went to their driveway with a pistol, pointed at them and started shooting,' Brenneman said.
She said the shooter was a neighbor of Rhodes and Lynn.
'They were uneasy around him,' she said.
Rhodes' sister, Marie, mourned the loss of her brother on Facebook.
'Today is the worst day of my life,' she wrote. 'My brother and his father-in-law were shot and killed today by some psychopath. I hope [people] with mental problems really start getting help, so s**t like this stops happening.'
Victim William Rhodes worked at Grannas Brothers, a construction and contracting firm based in Hollidaysburg, according to his Facebook profile. He
State police said late Friday that they were still trying to piece together a timeline and motive. The gunman and the victims weren't related, Blair County District Attorney Rich Consiglio said.
'It's going to take us some time to put this all together ... and know exactly what occurred,' said Lt. Col. George Bivens, deputy state police commissioner. Investigators are processing five crime scenes within about a 1.5-mile radius.
The rampage ended when troopers chased Michael down and killed him in a shootout.
Three troopers in patrol cars were injured in the pursuit that began after the gunman, driving a pick-up truck, fired at them, police said. One trooper injured a wrist and then was hit in the chest but was saved by a bulletproof vest.
A second trooper was injured by glass fragments in his eye and bullet fragments that hit him in the forehead, Bivens said. The third trooper suffered minor injuries from the head-on crash, he said.
'I think we have three very fortunate state police members tonight,' Bivens said. 'We are very thankful for the fact that they survived this attack. Someone was watching over them.'
The woman at Juniata Valley Gospel Church had cooked food the day before for the funeral of the church's longtime pastor, said the Rev. James McCaulley, his brother. The church was still reeling from the Rev. David McCaulley's death when the woman returned to decorate its hall - named after the pastor of 58 years - and bullets ripped through a window, he said.
James McCaulley, who is the pastor of another church about 50 miles away from the site of Friday's carnage, said his older brother began leading the Frankstown church in 1954.
'He preached his last sermon at the church in October before he fell ill,' McCaulley said.
The church, which lists about 150 members in an online want ad posted this month for an associate pastor, is close-knit, and the woman killed Friday was among its more active members, McCaulley said. She had made food for him to take home Thursday since his wife had died this year, he said.
'The only thing I can say good at this time is that [the gunman] didn't do this 24 hours earlier when there was a big crowd in the church hall,' McCaulley said. 'We're devastated.'
Friday's shootings were the second involving a rural Pennsylvania church this month.
An elementary school teacher is jailed on charges he fatally shot his ex-wife, a church organist, during a service in Coudersport on Dec. 2. The pastor and church members subdued him until police arrived.
The shooting happened as the National Rifle Association made their first announcement since the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School last week.
The group's CEO Wayne LaPierre put the blame for the mass shootings on violent media, rejected new gun control measures and called for more security in the nation's schools.
'The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun,' LaPierre said at the press conference in Washington D.C.
'I call on Congress today to appropriate whatever is necessary to put armed police officers in every single school in this nation,' he said.
LaPierre's statement did no go unchallenged, with two protestors interrupting him with banners blaming the NRA for school shootings who were then escorted out of the conference.
The Pennsylvania shooting also happened several hours after a minute's silence was held for the 26 victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting last Friday.
Church bells tolled 26 times for the 20 young children and six teaching staff shot dead by a gunman who broke into the Newtown school in Connecticut at 9.30am last week.
The gunman had previously shot dead his mother at her home before killing himself when police closed in. The Sandy Hook massacre was one of the deadliest school shootings in American history.
Silence: Governor Dannel Malloy listens to the ringing of a bell 26 times at Edmond Town Hall this morning
