Body found in home of ambush killer of firemen
Updated 4:52 p.m. EST
WEBSTER, N.Y. The ex-con who lured two firefighters to their deaths in a blaze of gunfire left a rambling typewritten note saying he wanted to burn down the neighborhood and "do what I like doing best, killing people," police said Tuesday as they recovered burned human remains believed to be the gunman's missing sister.
Police Chief Gerald Pickering said 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 military-style rifle before he set his house afire to lure first responders into a death trap before dawn on Christmas Eve.
"He was equipped to go to war, kill innocent people," Pickering said.
The rifle he had was a military-style .223-caliber semiautomatic Bushmaster rifle with flash suppression, the same make and caliber weapon used in the elementary school massacre in Newtown, Conn., Pickering said.
Webster, N.Y. firefighter tragedy
Two firefighters were shot dead and two others are hospitalized.
The chief said police believe the firefighters were hit with shots from the rifle given the distance but the investigation was incomplete.
Pickering declined to divulge the full content of the two- to three-page note left by Spengler 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."
The human remains were found in the charred house that Spengler shared with his 67-year-old sister, Cheryl. A medical examiner will need to determine the identity and cause of death because the body is badly burned.
Spengler killed himself as seven houses burned around him Monday on a narrow spit of land along Lake Ontario in this suburb of Rochester. A friend said Spengler hated his sister but the chief said the note left by him did not give a motive.
An undated photo of William Spengler
/ Monroe County Sheriff's OfficeThe two- to three-page typewritten note left by Spengler didn't give a motive for the shootings, Pickering said.
No other bodies were found, and police late Tuesday said the on-scene investigation had been completed.
Two firefighters were shot dead in the ambush and two others are hospitalized in stable condition.
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, 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.
Police Lt. Michael Chiapperini was killed while responding to a fire in Webster, N.Y.
/ WebsterPost.com/Messenger Post MediaThe police officer who exchanged gunfire with Spengler "in all likelihood saved many lives," Pickering said.
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."
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.
Tomasz Kaczowka, a 911 dispatcher, was killed while responding to a fire in Webster, N.Y.
/ FacebookCathy 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."
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.
Flags already at half-staff at the Webster firehouse for the victims of the Newtown shooting will now stay that way for the town's late firefighters, reports CBS News correspondent Jim Axelrod.
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As I always ask when I get flamed on a post with someone's opinions - where are the facts?
If it's all the fault of the court system, then there are tens of thousands of others lying in wait for their turn (but not a good enough reason to mandate gun registration, waiting periods, or background checks - right?).
Please read the 2nd Amendment ALL OF IT and get the point of it.
There are facts in this case - VOLUNTEER firemen were fired upon by someone who carried three weapons and at least 4 30 round clips for the AR15. He was a convicted felon who was using legally registered guns (again, guns aren't the problem, right?) just not to him. He finished his sentence in 1998, parole in 2006. There were over 20 firemen prevented from driving down Lake Road by the off-duty policeman who stumbled upon the scene. Had he not stopped them, there would have been far more dead including many under the age of 20. Having bumped into this maniac at the local 7/11 more than once, I can honestly say he was no more crazy than about ten others I see on a weekly basis. If the solution is more guns - i don't believe you understand the problem. I support gun ownership (have two legally registered in New York State - and for the flamers from south of Mason Dixon - get over it, the civil war ended 150 years ago. We are ALL Americans). I support a federal database of gun registrations. I support a minimum three-day waiting period. I support a mandatory background check. I support all States equally enforce the gun laws. I also support a review of the right to own ammunition clips in excess of ten. Having worked on the board of PROJECT EXILE (goal to remove illegal guns from the streets of Rochester, NY - google it), I can factually state - most of the illegal guns confiscated in our area come from Ohio where it is not only easy to get, there are gun stores set-up at the state border (just like fireworks in PA) for those looking to circumvent the state law in NY. But they aren't criminals right? THey're just exercising their rights under the 2nd Amendment.
1. Background checks before purchasing a weapon.
2. Three Day waiting period.
3. Mandatory registration in a federal database
Rochester has had the highest homicide rate per capita of any city in New York and I have worked to minimize it with many law enforcement folks, elected officials, and concerned citizens. Please tell everyone, as the expert you think you are, as to what work you've done to minimize the death of innocent people? Actually, i don't believe death penalties are the answer. I support bringing back penal colonies.
How did it begin, this tie between the concept of liberty and guns? With the American Revolution pushing tyranny from our shores and a constitutional amendment written to keep tyranny out of our government.
The argument that we cannot retrieve all the guns and therefore should not try to reduce their numbers ("The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun") seems counter to the logic that we should increase the number of guns (giving them to teachers, firefighters, etc.).
I am not on one side or the other in this debate. I have owned guns. I do not own any guns now. That is my choice. I do not have the right to push that view onto others.
My faith dictates I do not kill, so even if I were in a situation that there was a bad guy hurting others, I might hesitate to kill (Matthew 24). I say hesitate because I really don't know what I would do if my children (my own family or the students I teach) were in danger. But I don't fantasize about doing so. I feel strongly that killing is wrong, period.
I once had a homeowner threaten to shoot me (he was frightened, shaking, pointing a large pistol in my face, convinced I was a burglar and not just the milkman). That man should not have a gun. I almost died that day over the idea he thought I was stealing from him.
I wonder if the fantasy of defending home and family by killing bad guys is so very different from bad guys fantasizing about killing.
What is troubling with this debate is the polarization of views (just as the political debates over the last few years). It used to be people could disagree without name calling. Even if one disliked the president, he was treated with respect (I think that began to change with Nixon).
Can we not seek a balance? Perhaps the NRA can truly listen to the concerns. Is making it difficult to use a machine designed to kill efficiently truly an erosion of our rights? Can we really call gun owners a militia anymore? Perhaps we can look at the motivation behind creating the 2nd Amendment and see if that still makes sense.
Perhaps we can also agree that this is a democracy (or a democratic republic or whatever) and agree that Red of Blue, the people have voted and they desire the government handle certain things (health care, etc.) and stay out of certain things (marijuana), and that some things are too close to call (abortion) and should be left up to states.
Government should provide infrastructure for commerce (roads, the internet, telephones, funded schools, a military, etc.). Some of those priorities are out of
Perhaps we learn to be kind to each other, listen to each other, seek to find what we can live with and what we can live without.
So... below will be comments that attack my view through name calling and sarcasm. That is fine. I work with middle schoolers and I get that. But... I hope there are some reasonable views out there and an honest DIALOGUE can happen.
We have been closing mental health facilities for 30 years and that certainly is an issue that must be addressed. Those facilities were not just for the protection of society, but also to help individuals. I agree we should take a serious look at caring for thse who need it BEFORE we end up caring for them in prisons.
Could you perhaps engage in comments which aim to be dialogue rather than name calling? not that I mind you being juvenile, that is your perogative. It is just that I would like to seem some thinking going on. Thank you.
Wishing you a happy new year, free from hatred, pain, and sorrow.
ALSO : "William Spengler, who served 17 years in prison for the 1980 hammer slaying of his grandmother" I think we should ban hammers that kill people.
I wish people would stop going after low hanging fruit blaming objects as if they did anything. The wacko did,and society is too busy giving out food stamps for the overweight so they can buy lottery tickets,booze and cigarettes to focus money on corralling the nutjobs that are loose. That takes actual effort,organization and prompt responsiveness form the government. Too much work.