{"id":31126,"date":"2012-12-26T14:51:27","date_gmt":"2012-12-26T12:51:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/?p=31126"},"modified":"2012-12-26T14:51:27","modified_gmt":"2012-12-26T12:51:27","slug":"firefighter-ambush-shootingkiller-says-do-what-i-like-doing-best-killing-people-us-news-31126","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/firefighter-ambush-shootingkiller-says-do-what-i-like-doing-best-killing-people-us-news-31126\/","title":{"rendered":"Firefighter Ambush Shooting:Killer says “do what I like doing best, killing people” \/ US News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The gunman who ambushed two firefighters as they approached his burning house left a note saying he wanted to torch the neighbourhood and “do what I like doing best, killing people”.<\/h1>\n

Gerald Pickering, police chief in Webster, New York state, said 62-year-old William Spengler armed himself with three weapons and set his house on fire to lure emergency services into a death trap.<\/p>\n

Spengler killed two volunteer firefighters – Mike Chiapperini, 43, and 19-year-old Tomasz Kaczowka – and shot two others before taking his own life in the small town on Monday morning.<\/p>\n

Police believe human remains found in the burnt-out home are those of the gunman’s 67-year-old sister, Cheryl, who has been missing since the blaze. The remains will be examined before identity is confirmed.<\/p>\n

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The full contents of the two-page, typed note – which police said does not reveal a motive – have not been published, but Mr Pickering said it clearly shows the killer’s “intent”.<\/p>\n

One of the guns used was a semi-automatic Bushmaster rifle, the same type of gun used in the December 14 school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut. Mr Pickering said Spengler was “equipped to go to war”.<\/p>\n

Mr Chiapperini’s full-time job was as a public information officer with the Webster police department. He was named firefighter of the year for 2012.<\/p>\n

Mr Kaczowka worked as an emergency call dispatcher and Mr Pickering described him as “a tremendous young man”.<\/p>\n

The two injured volunteer firefighters, Joseph Hofstetter and Theodore Scardino, remain in hospital. They are said to be awake and alert and are expected to recover despite suffering “significant” injuries.<\/p>\n

Spengler was released from prison in 1998 after serving 17 years for beating his 92-year-old grandmother to death with a hammer in 1980.<\/p>\n

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Authorities have said he lived a quiet life and had done nothing to bring himself to police attention since his parole.<\/p>\n

Spengler’s mother Arline, who had lived with her two children, died in October, leaving Spengler on his own with his sister whom he “couldn’t stand”, according to neighbour Roger Vercruysse.<\/p>\n

Spengler “stayed on one side of the house and [Cheryl] stayed on the other,” Mr Vercruysse said.<\/p>\n

Dozens of people turned out on Monday night for an impromptu vigil to mourn the firefighters, leaving bouquets and messages of condolence at the local fire station.<\/p>\n

One man left a crate of beer.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The gunman who ambushed two firefighters as they approached his burning house left a note saying he wanted to torch the neighbourhood and “do what I like doing best, killing people”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":702,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,80,63,1,118,14],"tags":[42199,42202,42200,42201,42198,6022,42203,42204],"class_list":["post-31126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-america","category-breaking-news","category-daily","category-general","category-hot","category-world","tag-firefighter-ambush-shooting","tag-firefighter-gunman-do-wat-i-do-best","tag-firefighter-killer","tag-killer-says-i-like-killing-people","tag-us-firefighter-shooting","tag-us","tag-webster-firefighter-killer","tag-william-spengler-killed-firefighters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/702"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31126\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}