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J.D. Cavrich / Altoona Mirror
Authorities block the road along Route 22 near Canoe Creek State Park, Pa., while investigating the shootings Friday, Dec. 21,2012.
A gunman killed three people Friday in central Pennsylvania, including a woman in a church, before police shot him dead, authorities said. Three state troopers were injured, including one who was shot twice in the chest but survived thanks to his bulletproof vest.
Pennsylvania State Police said the man killed the three people at three different locations, including the church and a private home in Frankstown Township, about 75 miles west of Harrisburg.
About 9 a.m. ET, the gunman fired into the church, killing the woman, before shooting and killing a man at a private residence, police said. Those shootings may have been related, Blair County District Attorney Richard Consiglio said.
As the gunman fled, his pickup truck crashed into a second vehicle, and he shot and killed the other driver, police said. The truck subsequently crashed into a car driven by one of the troopers on Juniata Valley Road near Geeseytown, and the gunman got out and began firing. The troopers returned fire, killing the suspect, police said.
The woman was killed at Juniata Valley Gospel Church in Frankstown Township, the Rev. James McCaulley, brother of the church's late pastor, told The Associated Press. McCaulley, who was in town after having presided over his brother's funeral Thursday, told the AP that the woman was struck by gunshots that flew through a window of the church hall as she was decorating for a children's Christmas party.
Consiglio said one of the injured troopers was shot twice in the chest but was saved by his bulletproof vest. One was injured in the crash, and one was injured by flying glass from a bullet that was shot through his car window, he said. None sustained life-threatening injuries.
The county sheriff's office indicated that the gunman may have had more targets in mind, saying in a post on its Facebook page that the toll "could have been a lot worse" had state troopers not responded as quickly as they did. As it was, investigators' resources were stretched processing five separate crime scenes, including the church, said Deputy Col. George Bivens of the State Police.
"This is one of the largest crime investigations that I've seen," Consiglio said.
The Blair County Emergency Management Agency said it was calling in counselors for the public to a command center it had set up at the Geeseytown Fire Hall, and a prayer service and vigil were planned for Saturday at Geeseytown Lutheran Church.
Watch US News crime videos on NBCNews.com
Michelle Acevedo of NBC News contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
Who cut down the funding for mental health issues? Didn't that happen during the Reagan years? And this is a side note, but seriously: if you need an assault rifle to kill a deer, you are a terrible hunter.
People don't use assault rifles to kill game they use rifles. Assault is just a name that goes in front of rifle. The most dangerous and "Deadly" rifle ever made is a .22 cal. ASSAULT, what a really stupid name. Anybody can use the word assault in front of a weapon......................"ASSAULT BAT."
Been alot of shootings during Obummers time. Money problems causing people to go mad.
you are so right those dumb ass in office are a joke they act like a bunch of kids playing games with our country they act like there new to running a goverment and so confused about what to do well thats bull @!$%# because they are not stupid they know what they are doing everbody calls Obama stupid but hes not hes knows what hes doing to this country they are bringing us all down slowly by slowly and they want to find a reason to take our guns too so they can take over us its the truth i think alot people need to do there home work because its going to be scary we think we are afraid of the people with the guns i think we need to be afraid of our goverment thats why they want us helpless so it can be easy to do what they want wake up people its not going to get pretty
"Exactly. I can go out right now and pick up probably any kind of gun I want illegally. Gun laws won't change that. The people who kill people like this are sick and want to hurt others. Without guns they will find a way. It will be a shame when they have to resort to explosives which will easily claim more lives than guns will because we made it hard for them to get a gun"
You are correct. Anybody who wanted to kill allot of people could simply go to a home depot pick up a couple hundred pounds of fertilizer and take out a hell of allot more people than in the Connecticut shooting. So libs i think we need to ban fertilizer.
MARSHAL LAW
MR PRESIDENT
suspend all rights IMMEDIATELY
GENERAL ELECTRIC SAID IT IS OKAY
http://www.courant.com/sns-rt-us-china-stabbingsbre8bd065-20121213,0,5592318.story
I guess this is the new norm
Crazy, crazy, crazy. It is just getting worse and worse and worse. The need for speed is most likely behind all of this violence.
What's so special about this news story? People get shot up in every city across America every day. People also get beaten to death with baseball bats MORE then they get killed with guns according to the FBI. Where's cry against the MLB for delivering America it's most deadly weapon?
Recently, a neighbor of mine was a victim of a home invasion robbery. While he was sleeping, four thugs broke in and nearly beat him to death with baseball bat. Most likely he will be disabled for life.
Why is this even being posted if this stupid, liberal, news blog doesn't even know what is going on in PA.
Between this, Newtown, the hospital shooting, the 18 year olds joke posting and the guy walking into the school in Virginia, does anyone out there understand that when someone does something outright stupid, that you are not supposed try and replicate it somewhere else? Because there really is no point that you have got to prove, except that you are an idiot and now you have just got national TV coverage for doing something really stupid! When are people ever going to learn?
You once again blame mental illness. . . wow. Anyone who buys a gun to shoot anything already has a mental illness. All the money you spend amassing your arsenal could be spent wisely by going to poor countries and feed them, if you don't feel comfortable feeding the ones here. You will get a better reward from your God for doing a good deed. If you think that your government is so evil that you have to be armed to resist it, you are already mentally sick. We call it "hearing voices" like I used to tell soldiers in my platoon. Rational people solve problems without guns.
This is off-topic, but did it ever occur to you that all that aid we send to those poor countries feed the WARLORDS of said poor countries, and not the poor? Did it ever occur to you that even if the aid reaches those poor, it's pretty much a handed-out way of life? And did it ever occur to you that, after all this time sending this aid through organizations like CCF (which touts it has been "helping children for over 70 years") a lot of that money goes to administrative costs before the aid ever filters out to the warlords? And, did it ever occur to you that nothing has changed for those people for over 75 years? What's wrong with THAT picture?
Now, back to topic: you're right about one thing- Rational people solve problems without guns. And that includes gun owners.
HUH ?
Here we go again............. THIS IS NEVER GOING TO STOP - without the removal of guns in our society!!!
I wonder what the statistics are for those who are entering the local police departments these days...... You could not pay me enough money to do that horrible job! So, what's going to happen when the police no longer want to protect us? Or, the only police protecting us are just as crazy & mean as the citizens toting their guns?????
Think about it....... we either slow this process down NOW and CONTROL IT by getting rid of most guns (especially getting them out of the hands of regular citizens) or we are not safe to step out the door of our home.
Right DeeJay, because regular law abiding citizens are at fault here...
This will always happen, because criminals will always get guns, just like drug addicts still get drugs. Don't take my right to defend myself and my family away from me.
What happened in New Orleans after Katrina? Where were the police?
Lets make Vicoden illegal in this country because that will ensure the druggies cannot get them illegally. In fact, lets outlaw vicoden, norco, lortab, hydrocodin, valium and all them drugs. see how well all the prescription addicts go for that. because drug use is out of hand with illegal drug use and drug sales. Ban it all, that is how you stop the majority of illegal drug use. ban it all........see how long before the soccer moms start shooting up hospitals to get their drugs.
I think all these shooting are conspiracies started by counselors, we need more counselors. Maybe if people would lear how to deal with life, like everyone used to do, this crap would not happen. We have turned into a me culture, it is all about me. That is what needs to be changed, but it never will, so you better prepare yourselves.
Those games where created by the DOD
YOU DON'T LIKE THIS COUNTRY AND OUR CONSTITUTION?
MOVE! LEAVE!
GREECE IS DE ARMED PLUS, Rwanda, Iran, Syria, Libya, Iraq, Sudan, Russia, ENGLAND, AUSTRALIA, SPAIN, GERMANY...
PLEASE LEAVE
DON'T TREAD ON ME
Amendment II
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State,
the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
Why is MSN calling this breaking news. Gun fights happen all the time. Just because of what happened with the kids, any act of gun violence is going to be announced as breaking news on every news outlet.
All this does is convince people that gun shootings are increasing when they are not. The amount of gun violence is about the same as it was last year. The only difference is the shootings are taking place at schools and movie theaters instead of banks, stores, and private homes.
There are too many crazy idiots in this county. All carrying guns and like many of the other posters have said, with some type of mental illness.
You wanna cut gun violence down, then have the Pyscologists design a mental evalutation that every gun holder must take and pass before allowed to carry/use a gun. And iclude these tests in jobs where guns are required like law enforcement. Maybe then they'll be able to catch some of these racist cops.
Make that test and gun license renewal a thing you have to renew every 6 monthes to a year.
copycats....they want the "fame"
The pattern of anonymous mass shootings in predominately white suburbia/middle America, vs. one-on-one shootings in the so-called "inner cities" is striking. Anyone have anyting to say about that?
To be honest, I do not think this was a copy cat move. This has everything to do with the failed end of the world apocolypse. Just kidding - who knows why crazy people do the things they do.
Please, NRA - tell us more about how guns make us safer...
I'd rather have a gun and shoot back than sit there and beg for mercy.
Just because you carry a gun doesn't magically make you trained to use it in a combat situation. More bullets flying creates more potential for more people to get hurt.
I am a gun owner, and I support gun law reform.
The idiots can't blame the NRA for this. I guess it's a good thing that people don't have access to a cannon. Oh, I know! It's your god exercising population control.
Very interesting how we now hear of EVERY shooting towards the Northeast, but you generally have to search for instances where guns save lives.. Yeah, the media doesn't have any kind of agenda, do they?
I think it's too easy to get guns. They should at least do a few evaluation checks on the person getting one to see if they are even in the right mind to own a gun.
Secure the Border. Keep violent criminals in prison. Start to proscecute those who file false applications for firearms- Less than 2% are. Tell Hollywood and the Liberal press to stop making violent films as they call for control out of the side of their mouth.
Procecute members of our Government for gun running. Obama and Holder are as guilty of murder as the Sandy Hook shooter.
Back in my high school days (81-85), we always had an plain clothes armed police officer present and we never had a shooting!!!
So, a gun just walked in a killed (3) people and killed it's handler. Geez...this is really bad! What next? I bet we see in the next couple of days, several people getting in their cars and the car goes on a drunken killing spree. These are the only logical explainations, because there is NO WAY IN HELL a human being is capable of killing anyone with a gun or a car.
I know this is going to sound completely irrational and crazy talk; but any chance the current financial problems, high unemployment and a unstable government had anything to do with this??? Hmmmm.....
he probably thought "hey its the end of the world, who cares if i shot some people, they are going to die anyway"