He Shot Two Women on the Sidewalk, Then Went Inside. Nine People Are Dead.

Friday started out as an ordinary October evening in Erie, Pennsylvania. People were getting home from work, kids were finishing dinner, and on the 700 block of Perry Street nobody had any reason to think the night would become one of the worst their city has ever seen.

Then, at 4:52 p.m., a ShotSpotter gunfire alert lit up Erie police dispatch. Witnesses were already calling in: a man was firing a gun in the street, and then he ran into a house. When the smoke cleared, nine people were dead, including two children and a woman who was eight months pregnant. Almost all of them were related to one another.

Here is everything investigators have confirmed so far.

What happened on Perry Street

The call came in just before 5 p.m. on Friday, October 9. According to Erie Police Chief Rick Lorah, witnesses told dispatchers they had seen a man firing a gun near a home in the 700 block of Perry Street, close to East 7th, before he went inside the residence.

Officers arrived within minutes. What they found first were two women, fatally wounded, lying on the sidewalk outside the house. Police say video and audio evidence recovered later shows two distressed women arriving at the residence shortly before 5 p.m. and pounding on the door. The gunman came outside, shot both of them, and went back in.

No more shots were fired after officers reached the scene, Lorah said. Police surrounded the house and launched a tactical response that lasted into the evening. Residents nearby heard more loud bangs during the operation and feared the worst, but city officials later clarified those sounds were flashbang devices used by law enforcement, not additional gunfire.

When officers finally went inside, they found carnage. Six more victims were dead in the home, along with the suspected shooter, a 45-year-old man, who appeared to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. In total: eight victims and the gunman, nine dead.

Nine dead, and nearly all of them were family

At a Saturday afternoon news conference, Erie County Coroner Lyell Cook ruled the deaths of six adults, two children and one unborn child as homicides. He ruled the death of the 45-year-old suspected shooter a suicide.

Police have not released the victims’ names. What they have confirmed is devastating. The victims included a 51-year-old woman, a 37-year-old woman, a 44-year-old woman, a 24-year-old pregnant woman, a 19-year-old man, a 21-year-old man, a 5-year-old boy and a 1-year-old girl. The pregnant woman was eight months along.

Eight of the nine people who died were related to one another, including the suspected shooter. The ninth was a friend of the pregnant woman. One of the youngest victims was a one-year-old girl. The oldest was 51.

Chief Lorah would not discuss what officers saw inside the house. He called the scene unlike anything he or the other officers on the city police force had ever encountered, and said investigators are working to establish the full circumstances of what occurred.

What we know so far

• Police were called at 4:52 p.m. Friday to the 700 block of Perry Street in Erie, Pennsylvania, after a ShotSpotter alert and witness reports of a man firing a gun.
• Two women were found dead on the sidewalk outside the home. Evidence shows they had been pounding on the door shortly before the gunman came out and shot them.
• Six more victims and the suspected shooter were found dead inside the residence.
• The coroner ruled eight deaths homicides, including two children and an unborn child, and the shooter’s death a suicide.
• Eight of the nine dead were related, including the shooter. The ninth was a family friend.
• City officials say all nine deaths occurred before police arrived. Loud bangs heard during the tactical response were flashbangs, not gunfire.
• No motive has been released, and the victims’ identities had not been made public as of Saturday afternoon.

The response, and the sounds that were not gunfire

For hours on Friday evening, Erie residents watching the standoff unfold on local news heard reports that made the situation sound even worse: that shots were still being fired while police waited outside. City officials moved quickly to correct that impression.

Officers reached the scene within minutes of the ShotSpotter alert, and investigators determined that every death happened before they got there. The prolonged tactical operation was about securing the house and confirming there was no surviving threat, not about an active shooter holding out for hours. The sounds that alarmed neighbors were flashbangs from the police response.

Officials have also urged restraint. The mayor’s office asked residents to exercise care when sharing information about the shooting, noting that unverified reports and speculation had been circulating since Friday night.

What investigators still will not say

The biggest questions remain unanswered, and police are in no hurry to answer them. Chief Lorah said investigators will not speculate about a motive or discuss details that could compromise the case.

Neither the victims nor the shooter have been publicly identified. The coroner’s office said Saturday morning that it was only just beginning the process of confirming identities, and it was not known whether autopsies would be performed. Families had to be notified before any names could be released, and with so many victims from one family, that process alone is enormous.

The Saturday 4 p.m. press conference from city officials brought new details but no motive, no names, and no theory of what set the evening in motion. The investigation, Lorah said, is working diligently to establish the full circumstances.

A city in shock

Erie is a city of about 94,000 people on the shore of Lake Erie, the kind of place where neighbors know each other’s routines and Friday nights are quiet. A shooting of this scale is beyond anything the city has seen.

Governor Josh Shapiro weighed in Saturday morning, saying he had spoken with Erie Mayor Daria Devlin and offered the full support of his administration. In a post on X, Shapiro wrote: “I’ve spoken with Mayor Devlin and offered my Administration’s full support following the tragic mass shooting in Erie last night, killing nine of our fellow Pennsylvanians. My heart breaks for this family. Lori and I are praying for their loved ones and the entire Erie community.”

The City of Erie and the mayor’s office released a joint statement Friday night assuring the public the situation was contained: the shooter is deceased, and there is no ongoing threat. But containment is not comfort. Eight members of one family, two small children, and a woman weeks from giving birth are gone in a single evening.

Similar stories of family mass shootings elsewhere in the country have a grimly familiar shape: a home, a private dispute, no warning to the outside world until the gunfire starts. For a deeper look at how one Tennessee crime case shook its community earlier this month, read our coverage here.

What comes next

The investigation on Perry Street is far from over. Detectives will be working through video and audio evidence, witness statements, and the house itself. Autopsies may follow. The coroner has not said when a final report might be complete.

And then there is the question of motive, the one everyone wants answered and the one police are least willing to discuss. Was this a domestic dispute that escalated? A grievance that had been building? Something no one outside that family could have seen? Until investigators say otherwise, those are questions, not answers, and the city has been asked to let the evidence lead.

What is certain is that Erie will be counting its dead for a long time. Nine lives ended on a sidewalk and inside a house on Perry Street on a Friday evening. Eight of them belonged to one family. Two belonged to children who should have had decades ahead of them. One belonged to a baby who never got to be born. The community’s grief is only beginning.

Sources: USA Today, Erie Times-News. This story is developing. See more US news coverage on VIDX.