{"id":227311,"date":"2026-10-12T09:12:36","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T09:12:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/pennsylvania-shooter-who-killed-eight-was-a-grandfather-says-slain-childs-dad-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T09:12:36","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T09:12:36","slug":"pennsylvania-shooter-who-killed-eight-was-a-grandfather-says-slain-childs-dad-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/pennsylvania-shooter-who-killed-eight-was-a-grandfather-says-slain-childs-dad-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania shooter who killed eight was a grandfather, says slain child\u2019s dad – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Father of toddler killed in Erie mass shooting says reported gunman never seemed distressed or out of the ordinary
The man who killed eight people, before turning the gun on himself, in a mass<\/a> shooting in a home in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Friday was a grandfather who had not shown signs that he was capable of such violence, according to people who knew the shooter.
A man whose toddler was among those killed said on Sunday that the man never seemed distressed or out of the ordinary, the Associated Press reports<\/a>.
\u201cI think that was a front for him,\u201d said Julius Windham during a memorial to victims of Friday\u2019s shooting. Windham\u2019s one-year-old daughter, Amarianna; her pregnant mother; and the woman\u2019s five-year-old son and unborn baby were among the victims.
\u201cHim every day, him smiling and being just \u2013 you would think of nothing like that would happen,\u201d Windham said.
The 45-year-old gunman took his own life. Authorities have not released his name, but the Erie police chief, Rick Lorah, said he was related to seven of the victims. The eighth was a friend of the pregnant woman, he said. Police have not made their names public, either.
Mourners on Sunday placed candles, flowers and stuffed animals outside the home where the man opened fire shortly before 5 pm on Friday. Windham wore a T-shirt with pictures of the slain woman and children and the words \u201cForever in my heart\u201d.
\u201cWords can\u2019t even explain what I\u2019m going through right now,\u201d Windham said. \u201cBut I gotta be strong for my community, you know what I\u2019m saying? My family, my daughters, my sons, everybody.\u201d
\u201cWe don\u2019t want that dark memory to be what defines their lives in this world,\u201d a family friend told Cleveland 19 News<\/a>. \u201cHow do you even fathom something like this? How will you go home and tell your kids: \u2018Hey, your mom, your siblings, your uncles and everybody else just got murdered by your grandpa?\u2019\u201d
Video and audio evidence recovered by investigators included muffled gunshot sounds coming from inside the home just before two \u201cdistressed\u201d women arrived and began pounding on the door, Lorah said. The gunman then came out and shot them before returning inside.
Responding officers found the two women dead outside. After deploying a drone and robot, they went inside and found the bodies of the five-year-old boy and one-year-old girl on the first floor; two more women and two young men in a stairwell; and the shooter on the second floor.
\u201cOut of respect for the victims and the families, I will not discuss the details of what our officers encountered inside that home,\u201d the chief said at a news conference<\/a>.
\u201cBut I want our community to understand the gravity of what happened and the profound impact this tragedy has had on those involved and on our community as a whole,\u201d he said.
Erie is about 120 miles (190km) north of Pittsburgh.
Sign up to Headlines US<\/span>
Get the most important US headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning
after newsletter promotion
Lorah declined to discuss motive but suggested mental health could be a factor. He said investigators would talk to relatives and examine the cellphones of the women who were killed outside the home.
\u201cThey knew something was going on at that house,\u201d Lorah said. \u201cWe have to figure out what that is.\u201d
Nicole and Debra Eller, whose best friend was among the victims, told the Associated Press they have known the family for more than 30 years. Nicole Eller said the shooter \u201cwas a good guy, and then he started going downhill with everything\u201d.
\u201cThey were a lovely family. Who would have thought this would ever happen?\u201d Debra Eller said. \u201cOh my gosh, this is so upsetting. This should have never happened to her or the kids or anybody. His grandchildren, his kids, how can you do that?\u201d
The Erie shooting was reminiscent of a 1982 massacre<\/a> in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in which a man killed 13 people, including five of his own children.
At a news conference on Saturday, Erie\u2019s mayor, Daria Devlin, addressed a portion of her remarks directly to the victims\u2019 families.
\u201cI am so deeply sorry,\u201d Devlin said. What happened to you was horrific, and there is nothing that any of us can say today that will make this any easier … Our entire community is with you, we\u2019re grieving with you. And we are here to support you.\u201d
\u201cMy heart breaks for this family. Lori and I are praying for their loved ones and the entire Erie community,\u201d said Pennsylvania\u2019s governor, Josh Shapiro, in a post<\/a> on X on Saturday.<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Father of toddler killed in Erie mass shooting says reported gunman never seemed distressed or out of the ordinaryThe man who killed eight people, before turning the gun on himself, in a mass shooting in a home in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Friday was a grandfather who had not shown signs that he was capable of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":227312,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-227311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}