***UPDATE 3***
Per a press conference on FOX NEWS CHANNEL – The shooter’s name was William Spangler (DOB 9/26/50) and he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He killed his grandmother in 1980 and was convicted in 1981 by Webster police department. He served time in prison until 1998 and was on supervised parole until 2006. The police chief says they haven’t had contact with him criminally in recent past.
The police chief also said that it’s now 7 homes that have been destroyed and they believe (at first blush) that this was indeed a trap set by Spangler. When firefighters arrived there was one car and one home ablaze and they believe the fires were likely set by Spangler.
The 2 surviving firefighters are still in the hospital, one in ‘guarded condition’ and the other in ‘stable condition’.
***UPDATE 2***
Here’s the latest report and a mini-press conference from fire officials describing what happened and providing the names of the firefighters who were targeted by the shooter. The police chief nearly breaks down in tears reporting the names of the 2 firefighters who are deceased, one of which was a Lieutenant at the Webster police department:
Mini-Update: Corrected that it was the police chief and not a fire official giving the press conference.
***UPDATED***
Apparently some jerk decided to begin shooting at our New York volunteer fire fighters who had been called to put out a house fire in Webster. He killed 2 of them and wounded 2 more.
The latest reports are that the shooter is dead on the scene.
UPDATE: The latest FOX NEWS report is that the shooter is dead, but it’s not clear if it’s suicide or the shooter was killed by police. Also, the single house fire spread to 3 other houses because the firefighters were unable to fight the blaze in the first house due to the shooter. They also don’t know if there were people in the other houses. A news conference has been scheduled for 2PM.