Four N.Y. firefighters shot responding to blaze
Why would anyone want to kill a firefighter?
"N.Y. killer of 2 firefighters left chilling note; Had same make, caliber rifle used in Conn. killings" by George M. Walsh | Associated Press, December 26, 2012
WEBSTER, N.Y. — A former convict killed two firefighters with the same caliber and make military-style rifle used in the Connecticut school massacre after typing a note pledging to burn down his neighborhood and ‘‘do what I like doing best, killing people,’’ police said Tuesday.
Now I'm only spit-balling here, but could we have another hoax on our hands? The particulars of the crime are screaming psy-op.
Related: Webster Ambush
There certainly are questions yet again.
The death toll rose to three as police revealed that a body believed to be the killer’s 67-year-old sister, Cheryl Spengler, was found in his fire-ravaged home.
William Spengler, 62, who served 17 years in prison for manslaughter in the 1980 hammer slaying of his grandmother, set his house afire before dawn Christmas Eve before taking a revolver, a shotgun and a semiautomatic rifle to a sniper position outside, Police Chief Gerald Pickering said.
Authorities say Spengler sprayed bullets at the first responders, killing two firefighters and injuring two others who remained hospitalized Tuesday in stable condition, awake and alert and expected to survive. He then killed himself as seven houses burned on a sliver of land along Lake Ontario.
That is not what was first reported.
Police recovered a military-style .223-caliber semiautomatic Bushmaster rifle with flash suppression, the same make and caliber weapon used in the elementary school rampage in Newtown, Conn., that killed 26, including 20 young children, Pickering said.
Every time they cite that psy-op I'm suspicious. Whatever happened out there, the last thing I'm going to believe is my agenda-pushing mouthpiece of a media.
The chief said it was believed the firefighters were hit with shots from the rifle given the distance but the investigation was incomplete.
‘‘He was equipped to go to war, kill innocent people,’’ the chief said.
The two- to three-page typewritten rambling note left by Spengler did not reveal what set off the killer or provide a motive for the shootings, Pickering said....
Roger Vercruysse said Spengler loved his mother, Arline, who died in October after living with her son and daughter in the house in a neighborhood of seasonal and year-round homes across the road from a lakeshore popular with recreational boaters.
As Pickering described it and as emergency radio communications on the scene showed, the heavily armed Spengler took a position behind a small hill by the house as four firefighters arrived after 5:30 a.m. to extinguish the fire: two on a firetruck; two in their own vehicles.
They were immediately greeted by bullets from Spengler, who wore dark clothing. Volunteer firefighter and police Lieutenant Michael Chiapperini, 43, driving the truck, was killed by gunfire as the windshield before him was shattered. Also killed was Tomasz Kaczowka, 19, who worked as a 911 dispatcher.
Several firefighters went beneath the truck to shield themselves as an off-duty police officer who was passing by pulled his vehicle alongside the truck to try to shield them, authorities said.
The first police officer who arrived chased and exchanged shots with Spengler, recounting it later over his police radio.
‘‘I could see the muzzle blasts comin’ at me. . . . I fired four shots at him. I thought he went down,’’ the officer said.
At another point, he said: ‘‘I don’t know if I hit him or not. He’s by a tree. . . . He was movin’ eastbound on the berm when I was firing shots.’’ Pickering portrayed him as a hero who saved many lives.
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"New York man who attacked firefighters killed himself' by George M. Walsh | Associated Press, December 28, 2012
"New York man who attacked firefighters killed himself' by George M. Walsh | Associated Press, December 28, 2012
The gunman who lured two firefighters to their deaths died of a self-inflicted shot to the head and wasn’t hit by return fire from a police officer, New York State Police said Thursday.
But investigators still hadn’t made a positive identification of the body found in William Spengler’s burned house. They have said they believe the remains are those of his sister Cheryl Spengler, 67, who also lived in the house near Rochester.
Did they ever get Dykes out of the hold because that story went down the memory hole.
Autopsies showed that West Webster volunteer firefighter Michael Chiapperini died of a single gunshot and Tomasz Kaczowka was killed by two, police said.
Spengler set a car on fire and touched off an ‘‘inferno’’ in his Webster home on land along the Lake Ontario shore, took up a sniper’s position, and opened fire on the first firefighters to arrive at about 5:30 a.m. Christmas Eve, authorities said. He wounded two other firefighters and an off-duty police officer who was on his way to work.
A Webster police officer who had accompanied the firefighters shot back at Spengler with a rifle in a brief exchange of gunfire before the gunman killed himself.
Trooper Mark O’Donnell said investigators weren’t releasing information about how Spengler got the military-style Bushmaster .223-caliber semiautomatic rifle, 12-gauge shotgun, and .38-caliber revolver found with his body. He said they are still tracing the history of the guns. Spengler spent 17 years in prison for killing his grandmother in 1980 and was barred from possessing weapons as a convicted felon.
Police have said they believe Spengler used the rifle to attack the firefighters because of the distances involved. The rifle, which had a combat-style flash suppressor, is similar to the one used by the gunman who massacred 20 children and six women in a Newtown, Conn., elementary school earlier this month.
Imagine the odds.
The Spengler siblings had lived in the home with their mother, Arline Spengler, who died in October. In all, seven houses were destroyed by the fire.
Investigators found a rambling, typed letter laying out Spengler’s intention to destroy his neighborhood and ‘‘do what I like doing best, killing people.’’
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"Woman charged in firefighter killings" AP, December 29, 2012
WEBSTER, N.Y. — The convicted felon who ambushed firefighters on Christmas Eve, killing two, could not legally buy the guns he used, but he picked out the semiautomatic rifle and shotgun and was in a store with a neighbor’s daughter when she bought them for him, police said Friday.
The woman, Dawn Nguyen of Rochester, was arrested Friday and faces a federal charge of knowingly making a false statement for signing a form indicating she would be the legal owner of the guns, US Attorney William Hochul said. She also was charged with a state count of filing a falsified business record, State Police Senior Investigator James Newell said.
The charges are connected to the purchase of an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle and a 12-gauge shotgun William Spengler allegedly had with him Monday when firefighters Michael Chiapperini and Tomasz Kaczowka were gunned down. Three other people were wounded before Spengler, 62, killed himself. He also had a .38-caliber revolver, but Nguyen is not connected to that gun, Newell said.
Then how did he get that gun?
Hochul said Nguyen bought the rifle and shotgun on June 6, 2010, for Spengler, who as a convicted felon was barred from possessing weapons. Police used serial numbers on the guns to trace them to Nguyen.
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Also see: Firefighters injured in gun ambush thank well-wishers
