Officials provide the latest details on the ambush that killed two firefighters while responding to a blaze in Webster, New York.
By Andrew Mach and Jason White, NBC News
Updated at 12:30 p.m. ET:?Police in Webster, N.Y., say the man who ambushed firefighters with a blaze of gunfire, killing two, in upstate New York, left a three-page typewritten note saying he wanted to burn down the neighborhood and ?do what I like doing best, killing people.?
William Spengler, 62, opened fire on the volunteers as they responded to a blaze just before 6 a.m. ET Monday in a small cluster of homes along Lake Ontario in Webster, N.Y., police said.
Two firefighters, Police Lieutenant Michael Chiapperini and Tomasz Kaczowka, were shot dead during the incident.
Two firefighters, Police Lieutenant?Michael Chiapperini and?Tomasz Kaczowka, were shot dead during the incident, and Spengler killed himself as seven houses burned around him Monday. Two other firefighters,?Joseph Hofstetter and Theodore Scardino, were recovering Tuesday at a hospital in Rochester, N.Y.?
An off-duty police officer also was hit by gunfire as he drove past the scene. There was no immediate information on his condition available on Tuesday.?
Webster Police Chief Gerald Pickering said at a press briefing Tuesday that Spengler armed himself with three weapons and set his house afire to lure first responders into a death trap.
"It does appear that it was a trap that was set," Pickering said,?his voice breaking at times.??People who get up in the middle of the night to fight fires, they don?t expect to get shot and killed."
Spengler's note did not appear to offer a motive for attacking the firefighters, Pickering said.?
Despite being shot, one of the injured firefighters was able to flee from scene under his own power. But the others remained pinned down on the narrow strip of land between Lake Ontario and Irondequoit Bay until a SWAT team arrived.
As police closed in, Spengler took his own life with a gunshot wound to the head, Pickering said. He was convicted of manslaughter in 1981 after the death of his grandmother, Rose Spengler, 92, and was paroled in 1998. He remained under parole supervision until 2006, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reported.
Monroe County Sheriff's office
William Spengler, 62, is seen in this undated booking photo.
Spengler's 67-year-old sister Cheryl Spengler is unaccounted for, Pickering said.
Spengler lived in the house with his sister and mother, Arline, who died in October at the age of 91. Arline Spengler's obituary asked that memorial donations be made to the West Webster Fireman's Association.?
A former neighbor told The Associated Press that Spengler "loved his mama to death" and that he "couldn't stand" his sister. The neighbor said he thinks Spengler "went crazy" after his mother died.
Prior to Monday's shooting, Webster police had not had any run-ins with Spengler since he was paroled, they said.
Although Spengler could not legally own firearms as a convicted felon, investigators told NBC 10 News in Rochester that he was equipped with four whiskey bottles of gasoline, a pistol and an AR-15 type rifle with 30-shot magazine capability. One of the four magazines had been used. ?
After the shooting, the fire grew to engulf at seven homes and one motor vehicle.?
?These firemen are part of our family. You go into a fire with these guys. To see them go down with something like this is totally unexpected. We are in shock,? Billy Gross, fire commissioner for West Webster, told the?Democrat and Chronicle.
Dozens of area residents were evacuated, with police searching them as they left, the newspaper reported.
"Miserable thing to happen this time of year," Mark Johns, a state assemblyman who represents the area, told?local NBC station WHEC. Johns said he knew some of the firefighters who were shot.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued a statement after the shooting, offering his "deepest condolences."
?All of our thoughts and prayers go to the families and friends of those who were killed in this senseless act of violence," Cuomo said.??New York's first responders are true heroes as they time and again selflessly rush toward danger in order to keep our families and communities safe."
NBC's Tom Winter and Rosanna Arlia contributed to this report.
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