Pennsylvania Mass Shooting: Grandpa Shot, Nine Killed Including Pregnant Daughter and Grandchildren in Mass Murder-Suicide

The gunman behind a Pennsylvania mass murder-suicide was a grandfather who killed nine, including his young grandchildren and a pregnant daughter who was just days away from giving birth, according to grieving relatives.

Police said the 45-year-old suspect, whose identity has not yet been fully revealed, was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside the family’s Erie home late Friday. The weapon was found next to him after the killings, officials told Erie News Now. The gunman went outside after opening fire inside the house and shot two women, aged 51 and 37, who had rushed to the scene. He then returned indoors and died by suicide, authorities said.

Evil in the Family

The victims included Angelina Stone, the gunman’s pregnant daughter, who was only days away from delivering her third child, Kryie. The unborn baby was also counted among the dead, bringing the total number of victims to nine.

Angelina’s two other children, Isiah, 5, and daughter Amari’anna, who was nearly 2, were also killed. In total, the gunman killed eight family members and a female friend of Angelina’s.

“Angelina’s father killed Angelina and her children in a murder-suicide, and now our family is facing the painful task of laying them to rest,” read an online fundraiser that had raised nearly $24,000 by Sunday.

The fundraiser did not name Angelina’s father, whose identity had also not been revealed by authorities. All the victims were related to the gunman except for one, who was a family friend.

The father of one of Angelina’s slain children also confirmed to Erie News Now that the gunman was the father of his former partner.

“It was my baby, bro, and he just took her,” Ezekiel said. “Her name was Amari’anna. She’s the most beautiful baby God could have created.”

Stone had chosen the name Kyrie for her unborn son and was expected to give birth on Wednesday.

“She was pregnant, about to have a baby in a couple of days and she had a daughter that was almost two, and her son Isaiah, who I believe was four or five,” Ezekiel’s sister, Lisa Simmers, told the outlet.

“They are all just beautiful children and definitely did not deserve what happened to them.”

Motive Still Unclear

Police in Erie have not revealed a possible motive for the killings. On Sunday, authorities said the victims’ identities were being withheld because “surviving family members are still being notified.”

The shooting began shortly before 5 p.m. Friday at a home on the 700 block of Perry Road on Erie’s East Side.

Police said video and audio evidence suggested that gunfire erupted inside the house before two “distressed” women began pounding on the door.

The 45-year-old family patriarch then went outside and shot both women before returning indoors, authorities said.

When officers arrived, they found the bodies of the two women, aged 37 and 51, outside the home. Police deployed a drone and a robot during a standoff that ended without violence before entering the house. Inside, they found the bodies of a 5-year-old boy and a 1-year-old girl on the first floor. Two men and two women were found dead in a stairwell, while the suspected shooter’s body was upstairs, police said.

“It was horrific. It was the worst scene I have ever experienced,” Erie Police Chief Rick Lorah said during a press conference.