Police: NY gunman set 'trap' for firefighters

A former convict set a house and car ablaze in his lakeside New York state neighborhood to lure firefighters then opened fire on them, killing two and engaging police in a shootout before killing himself while several homes burned. Authorities used an armored vehicle to evacuate the area.                    

Police didn't immediately know a motive. They said the gunman's sister was unaccounted for.                       

Police said the gunman, 62-year-old William Spengler, shot at the arriving firefighters, probably with a rifle from atop an earthen berm.                     

"It does appear it was a trap," town Police Chief Gerald Pickering told a news conference. "These people get up in the middle of the night to go put out fires. They don't expect to be shot and killed."                                   

A police armored vehicle was used to recover two of the men, and eventually it evacuated 33 people from nearby homes, the police chief said.                         

Seven houses were destroyed, Pickering said, and police have not been able to get inside them to determine if there are any more victims.                      

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 an emergency dispatcher.              


AP