WEBSTER, N.Y.
(AP) -- The ex-con who lured firefighters to their deaths in a blaze of
gunfire left a 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 Tuesday that 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 semiautomatic 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. Spengler killed himself as seven
houses burned around him Monday on a narrow spit of land along Lake
Ontario.
One of the weapons recovered was a
.233-caliber semiautomatic Bushmaster rifle with flash suppression, the
same make and caliber gun 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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