Letter reveals plan for ambush
NEW YORK — A gunman who killed two volunteer firefighters and wounded two others in a Christmas Eve ambush in upstate New York left a typewritten note saying he planned to burn down his neighborhood and start “killing people,” authorities said Tuesday.
The gunman, William Spengler, 62, opened fire on volunteer firefighters who responded to a house fire he set early Monday in Webster, N.Y., a suburb of Rochester, authorities said.
Police said Spengler set the fire, laying a trap for the firefighters, and began shooting when they arrived.
He left a note describing his intent, Pickering said at a news conference.
“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,” Pickering read from the gunman’s statement.
Spengler started shooting at the firefighters before they got out of their fire truck, Pickering said. He shot out the truck’s windshield as they tried to drive away, he said.
“This was a clear ambush on first responders,” Pickering said. Police fired back at the gunman, he said. “It was a combat condition. They were shooting at muzzle flash,” Pickering said.
Spengler was in a natural depression in an embankment near a tree when he opened fire, he said.
His motive for attacking firefighters remained unknown, Pickering said. Pickering said he was not sure what the victims were shot with, but said Spengler had an “arsenal of ammunition” and three weapons — a Smith & Wesson .38 caliber revolver, a pumpaction Mossberg shotgun, and a .223 Bushmaster rifle with a flash suppressor.
As a convicted felon, Spengler could not legally own guns.
The firefighters killed in the attack were Lt. Michael Chiapperini and Tomasz Kaczowka, authorities said.
The injured firefighters were Joseph Hofstetter and Theodore Scardino.
Both men were listed in guarded condition at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester.