Body found in home of fireman killer

The suspect in firefighter ambush killings leaves note

POLICE have found human remains in the burned-out home of the ex-con who killed two firefighters and believe the victim is the gunman's sister.

Police Chief Gerald Pickering said Tuesday the remains were found in the charred house that 62-year-old William Spengler shared with his 67-year-old sister, Cheryl. A medical examiner will need to determine the identity.

Mr 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.

Pickering says Spengler "was equipped to go to war."

Two firefighters were shot dead and two others are hospitalised. 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, Connecticut, Mr Pickering said.

A house burns in Webster, New York. Police say the man who set the blaze and then opened fire on firefighters left behind a note saying he wanted to kill and burn down the neighbourhood.

The chief said police believe the firefighters were hit with shots from the rifle given the distance but the investigation was incomplete.

The ex-con also left a typewritten note saying he wanted to burn down the neighbourhood and "do what I like doing best, killing people," police said.

The two- to three-page typewritten note left by Spengler didn't give a motive for the shootings, Mr 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 neighbourhood I can burn down, and do what I like doing best, killing people."

William H. Spengler Jr., 62, who set a house and car ablaze on Xmas eve in Webster, N.Y., and then opened fire, killing two firefighters and wounding two others. After exchanging gunfire with police, Spengler also killed himself. AP/Monroe County Sheriff's Department

Mr 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 5.30am local time Monday to put out the fire, Mr 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.

Audio has been released of the shooting of New York firefighters in the US. Fox News reports.

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 Mr Vercruysse, who last saw his friend about six months ago.

Mr 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.

Firefighters gather around a burning house after they were let back into the area follwoing the fatal shooting. Picture: AP/Democrat & Chronicle, Jamie Germano

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, Mr 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," Mr Pickering said.

Lieutenant Michael Chiapperini, who volunteered as a firefighter in his spare time, was one of two firefighters killed in a Christmas Eve ambush in New York state.

A police armoured 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.

Mr 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.

Firefighters battle a blaze after they were let back onto the site outside Rochester. Picture: AP/Democrat & Chronicle, Jamie Germano

The two wounded firefighters, Joseph Hofstetter and Theodore Scardino, were in stable condition overnight 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.

A gunman has shot dead two firefighters when he ambushed them at the scene of a housefire in a suburb of Rochester, New York.

The shooting and fires were in a neighbourhood 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," Mr Pickering said.

"Webster is a tremendous community. We are a safe community, and to have a tragedy befall us like this is just horrendous."

New York Governor 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," Mr 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 December 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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